


Facets of Belief

by Uniasus



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Belief, Gen, Leap of Faith, alternate endings, movie AT, personal manifesto, power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-30 15:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1020073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uniasus/pseuds/Uniasus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AT from the movie's ending.</p><p>With the breaking of his staff, Jack is knocked out and the Last Light goes out.  Empty of power, the Guardians go searching for Jack, because even though he had no believers he was still able to fend off Pitch Black.  He gets his power from some place else, and the Guardians are insisting he shares.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Powerless

Jack knew his staff was made of wood, and yet he had never thought of it as breakable. So the fact that it snapped as easily as an icicle from a side mirror was very surprising. The fact that it hurt, that he could feel his heart crack at the same time, was terrifying.

There was nothing he could have done to prevent Pitch's attack, he was too focused on the pain to even see it coming. It hit him like one of Bunny's kicks, compounding his chest pain. He blacked out when his head hit the icy rock, but he knew it had just been a matter of time before his splintering heart sent him to the darkness.

#####

Baby Tooth shook herself awake, the action sending her dull headache into a piercing pain that soon faded. She was cold, tooth fairies lacked the layer of down that would make long stays in either pole comfortable. Shivering, she buzzed her wings, but to her dismay they weren't working. The fairy was grounded.

She pushed herself up to her feet and took a few steps forward. They were unsteady, but Baby Tooth didn't know if that was due to not having set foot on the ground in centuries or because of the snow.

Once she got the hang of the terrain, she looked around. Rock walls, so some type of crevasse, and...was that Jack's staff? If he had lost it, surely he'd come looking for it and in the process find her.

She walked toward it, hand on the rock wall, and as she got closer she realized it was Jack's shepherd hook, albeit lacking its usual frost and in two pieces. After Pitch had backhanded her into a wall Baby Tooth had no idea what happened, but Jack and Pitch must have fought. And Jack lost.

Baby Tooth didn't think that was possible, he had been so strong the previous night when they all went teeth collecting together!

Jack would need his staff, but first she had to figure out how to get out of here. She doubted Tooth would be able to find her; she didn't know where Pitch had taken her and if she couldn't fly her boss wouldn't be able to either. Maybe if she fixed the staff, somehow, it would return to Jack, like Bunny's boomerangs, and she could hitch a ride. Yes, that was a good idea. Now all she needed was something to connect the two halves.

Baby Tooth pivoted slowly, taking in her surroundings.

Behind her was Jack Frost himself, lying against the rock wall and not moving.

She rushed towards him, forgetting her wings didn't work so that all she did was land face first in the snow when she took a step. Not minding the bend in her nose, she ran towards Jack, calling his name, but he didn't stir.

Even when she viciously stabbed her nose into his thumb after everything else failed to rouse him, Jack didn't move.

Well, at least he was still breathing, she thought. That was good.

Baby Tooth made her way back towards the staff. Maybe if she fixed it, Jack would get better. But she knew it was beyond her supplies and abilities. She couldn't even lift a piece of it, and rolling the part without the hook took more effort than she thought it would. She moved it maybe a foot closer to the still Guardian before she was too exhausted to do more.

She staggered towards Jack and wearily climbed up his sweatshirt until she was at the neck of the fabric. His skin was ice cold, but perched were she was Baby Tooth could feel the faintest hint of warm breath. She thought about nesting in the pouch of his sweatshirt, it would certainly warmer, but she was also worried that at some point the air leaving Jack's mouth would stop.

The small fairy hoped that someone, and not Pitch, found them soon.

It started to snow.


	2. Magical Objects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to go Jack hunting.

Tooth fell to her knees as she realized Jamie couldn't see her. The last light, gone. 

To make matters worse, a car drove down the street and passed right through her, the other Guardians, and North's sleigh. 

“It's over,” North said, supporting himself against the side of his sleigh. Tooth doubted he could stand on his own. At least she could, though quick movement was beyond her. And her poor wings! The drooped behind her, dead limbs. 

“Pitch won,” Bunny said, voice full of disbelief. “I didn't think that was possible. This is all Jack's fault!”

Tooth didn't say anything to the contrary, despite how much that statement hurt. She didn't believe Jack had intentionally stayed away and allowed the nightmares to attack unchallenged. Her words of blame, and those of the other Guardians from that morning, rang in her feathers and she regretted them. 

Jack Frost was a different breed and he had said from the beginning Guardian work was not for him. Tooth was sure Pitch had had something to do with Jack's delay, but the younger Guardian hadn't mentioned the Boogieman's role. Playing on his desires and fears she guessed. Additionally, Tooth wasn't entirely sure if Jack realized the full impact of Pitch's actions. Sandy's loss took its toll on everyone, but what was the sudden disbelief in another Guardian to one who hadn't had a single person believe in him for three hundred years? 

A Guardian who had no one believing in him, even his peers, who still had incredible powers.

“Bunny, you're brilliant!” Tooth said, picking him up and spinning in an unsteady circle. At a normal rabbit size, he fit in her hands quite nicely.

“Put me down! Put me down!”

She did, on the wing of the sleigh and turned to North. “We have to find Jack.”

“What?”

“That kid is selfish,” Bunny said, crossing his forepaws. “And at this point, he's probably sided with Pitch. Cold and dark go hand in hand, wouldn't you say?”

“Yes, but I don't believe he would side with Pitch.”

“He did come back,” North put in, “Even if he was late. He would not do that if he joined Pitch.”

“I don't care! It's because of that stupid show pony Easter is ruined and I'm like this.”

“But he fought so hard for Sandy,” Tooth said.

“Before he switched sides.”

“I do not believe Jack would wish to make children scared of him. He is too not serious enough for that.”

“Even if Jack doesn't want to fight with us anymore,” and really, Tooth wondered about that herself, “he can still help. He can fly and destroyed all those nightmares last night without getting strength from children believing in him. His powers come from someplace else. If he could tell us from where, then maybe we could go back to our old selves and fight Pitch. “

“But we don't know where Jack is.” North pointed out. “And reindeer ran off, so even if we did I couldn't take us there.”

Bunny hopped to the asphalt and stamped. “Lost my tunnels too. And there's no way you can carry all three of us Tooth. Even if you were at peak power.”

“Fine. Think then, what does Jack have that we don't.”

“White hair.”

“You have that North.”

“A bad attitude.”

“Bunny!”

“Hey, it's true.”

“What about his staff?”

North rubbed his belly absently. “That is were ice comes from.”

“So he gets his powers from an object, not the children. Where did his staff come from?”

“No clue, sheila.”

“North, what about your snow globe? That's an object. Does it work?”

North searched through his pockets and pulled out the standless snow globe he used as a short cut between places. “The Pole,” he said to it. The snow inside swirled and then settled into an image of his home, and Guardian headquarters, sitting amongst snow peaks. “Ah-ha! It works!”

Bunny looked hopeful as he hopped up to the sleigh and then along the edge of the carriage to peer into the orb. “Things are looking up! Maybe we don't need Jack. Where'd you get that North?”

“Uh...I don't remember.”

“We've used the Globe before to find each other, and others who aren't Guardians. Remember Cupid?” Tooth said.

“Please don't mention that name. Showing off his skin like that and spewing awful poetry.”

“I thought it was pretty.”

“You're a girl.”

“ Humpf!”

“Tooth is right. We can use Globe to find Jack. Don't forget Bunny, Manny chose him to be Guardian. He will help us.”

“Your belly telling you that?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I doubt things could be worse.”

North threw the snow globe and the swirling colors of a magic portal appeared. Out stepped two yeti, who North instructed to push the sleigh through to get it back for repairs. One of them grumbled, but both beasts were able to push the large transport through and the Guardians walked into the portal behind them. 

The North Pole was cold. Most of the building had been powered with the magic of wonder, but now the lights were dim and Tooth could feel the chill leaking in. She shivered and one of the yeti offered her a shawl obviously made of shed fur. “Thank you,” she said as she wrapped it around herself. It felt heavy on her wings and would hamper a quick take off, if she was capable of that. 

“Will the Globe even work?” Bunny asked. The Globe was still bright blue and green, but not a single light shone on it's surface and Tooth thought it made the colors dull. “I mean, the heat's not even on.”

“It will work, because it must.” North pressed buttons, clicked a knob, and then turned a handle to the left before pushing down. Instantly the Globe showed lights, most a pale blue. These were the minor guardians, the spirits of modest importance, reputation, and power levels to match. Three white lights stood clustered at the North Pole, them. 

“I knew it would work.” North said with a laugh. 

“Is Jack white or blue?” Tooth asked. 

“Good question. I do not know. He never took oath.” 

“Good riddance,” Bunny said under his breath. 

“Well, where is his home?”

“That I also do not know.” North frowned.

“When he interferes with Easter, it's always worse in the American Midwest,” Bunny offered. “And that's where we found him that first night.”

“America it is.” 

Tooth watched North rotate the Globe until they were looking at America and not Africa. The only blue light was in the Southwest, a spot she knew Jack didn't often go too. It was too hot and his ice melted too quickly. “He's not there,” she lamented.

“North, bring the South Pole into view. I can't tell if that's a light or not.”

At his current size, Bunny was right at eye level with the pole. North adjusted the Globe so the South Pole was no longer facing the floor. There was a white light near its center.

“That's him!” Tooth exclaimed but even as she said it the light representing Jack Frost dimmed. Just before it faded into the white painted landmass it grew in luminosity only to decrease again. “What does that mean?”

“It means Jack is in trouble. Elves! Find me distance weapon. I am no good now with swords.”

The yeti brought a fur lined bag that reluctantly Bunny was coaxed into and Tooth hung over her shoulder. “We will never speak of this in the future,” the small rabbit said as they watched North make some adjustments to potato shooters. 

“No promises.”

“Tooth, I swear, if you tell the Groundhog about my current situation - “

“I promise not to tell Phil or any of the minor guardians about it, but that is all you're getting.”

Bunny grumbled from inside the bag. “Oh, it's not that bad. I think you're rather cute when you're small. And you have to admit, this way you're not going to be cold.”

“Ready?” North asked before Bunny could respond. 

Tooth nodded. 

“Some yeti will come with, they are useful.” North shook the orb, said South Pole, and then tossed it. He stepped through, using a wooden stick painted like a candy cane as a walking stick instead of one of his swords like before. Tooth followed and it was only after her feet touched snow she realized she should have asked for shoes. 

The South Pole was in the middle of a blizzard. Tooth couldn't see much beyond ten feet. “How are we supposed to find him in this?” she shouted above the wind. She had to repeat it, at a louder volume, to North's ear before he heard her. The way his face fell told her he had no clue, but one of the yeti came to their rescue. He tapped their shoulders and then showed them the miniature Globe in his hands. The three steady white lights and the oscillating one were not far apart under normal conditions, but Tooth suspected in this weather it could take them hours to reach Jack. The yeti did something to the Globe and it zoomed it. The distance between them and Jack increased, but there was also now a green arrow pointing in the direction they needed to go hovering over the entire device. Tooth made a note to ask for a miniature Globe for Christmas.

They fell into single file, the yeti with the Globe leading, followed by North, Tooth with ride-along-Bunny, and then the other yeti. It was a quiet march. Conversation was too difficult and the cold sapped her thoughts. Tooth found herself jealous of Bunny's position, all curled up in a closed, warm space. She had long ago stopped feeling her fingers and toes.

The fourth time she stumbled, the rear yeti scooped her up and brought her to her chest. Shouting into her ear, North asked if she wanted to go back to his place. Tooth shook her head. “We need to find Jack, his light on the Globe is not as bright at it's peak. Besides, we're almost there.”

They continued on, Tooth held close by the yeti while North trudged on ahead of her. It was obvious he was having a hard time, he was leaning on the cane heavily, but it didn't seem like the cold was getting to him like it did her. She supposed it came from living at the North Pole, the conditions here couldn't be that different. For her however, it was much colder than atop her Indian mountain peak. 

It was perhaps an hour later that the lead yeti stopped and motioned towards the Globe in his hand. North nodded and as Tooth and company joined them she could see all four lights were practically in the same place. The wind had let up, it no longer howled and if they wanted they could hold a conversation at a decent decibel, but no one had the strength to put in such an effort. It was still snowing, though as Tooth unburied her face from the yeti's chest the visibility had improved drastically. 

In fact, she could see something shining not too far away. 

Tooth tugged on a bit of fur and directed the yeti's attention to it. He in turn pointed it out to the others and they all headed towards it. It was a huge ice structure, easily twenty feet high, and as they got closer Tooth could see it was Pitch's black sand forced to a standstill. Jack and Pitch had fought here, and Jack had defended himself well. 

Tooth nudged the bag sitting on her stomach. Bunny poked his disheveled head out, she got the distinct impression he had been sleeping. Lucky rabbit, that bag must be really insulated. 

“Still think Jack joined Pitch?” she pointed towards the spiky shape before them and Tooth could tell Bunny was mildly impressed. 

“Maybe they're practicing combos.”

Tooth rolled her eyes. “If that was the case, I don't think Jack's light would be fading.”

“Is it really fading?”

She nodded. “But we're close.” 

Apparently, they were close enough that the arrow on the Globe had disappeared, but there was still no sign of Jack. 

“What way?” Tooth asked. 

The leading yeti shrugged, but North pointed towards a rock wall. “My belly says that way.” No one argued. 

Three steps later, Tooth felt it. The connection with one of her fairies. They shared a light psychic link, just enough to tell if one was nearby. It helped her know who was around to send into the field to collect a tooth.

“One of my fairies is here!” She pushed at the yeti and he dropped her into the snow with a yetish curse. Tooth didn't mind the sudden rush of cold, she was running as well as she could. Bunny had his head out of the bag and was looking forward. 

“You hear that?” he asked and Tooth did. It was the squeaks of the fairy language; even faint Tooth would recognize it anywhere. 

She was so focused on the voice and presence of her fairy, whom she identified as the one Jack had saved from the nightmares, and named, that she didn't notice the rift in the surface until Bunny shouted. By then it was too late, she was falling. By some miracle she didn't hit her head on the way down but she did land on Bunny.

At his muffled curses, she quickly stood up. “Good thing you're light,” he gasped. 

“Are you okay?” 

Tooth looked up to see North and the two yeti looking down at them. “Yes, we're fine. My fairy is down here somewhere.”

North muttered something about not having rope, but then the yeti who had been carrying her produced some. 

“We're coming down!” North shouted.

Tooth nodded to say she had heard him, but focused instead on finding her fairy. Knowing Baby Tooth wouldn't be able to fly, Tooth fell to her hands and knees to search the ground. Bunny hopped in the opposite direction.

There was a large, strange mound of snow in front of her, covered rocks perhaps, and as Tooth watched something emerged from the snow. 

“Baby Tooth!” she said, diving to cup the small fairy in her hands and bring her to her face. “I'm so glad you're okay. I thought Pitch got you.”

Baby Tooth went straight into the tale of how she tried to get Jack to ignore the voice calling his name, she really did, but well, instead they ended up in Pitch's home and Jack got distracted by the teeth canisters and Pitch decided - 

“Tooth, it's him.”

Tooth looked up from Baby Tooth to see that Bunny had nosed at part of the snow mound and revealed a pale hand, fingertips blue and turning black. 

“Jack!” 

In a rush, she brushed the snow off the younger Guardian. Bunny and Baby Tooth helping as they could. Tooth moved him from leaning against the cold rock to lying on the snow. 

Jack looked awful. He was supposed to be in charge of ice and snow, he wasn't supposed to get a red nose after hours outside in winter and he certainly wasn't supposed to have the beginnings of frostbite evident on several parts of his body. 

“What happened to him?” Bunny asked and Baby Tooth fast forwarded her story until Pitch chased Jack down here. 

Knowing Bunny couldn't understand the fairy language, Tooth translated. “Pitch found Jack here and suggested they team up, but Jack said no and told him to go away. And then Pitch reveled Baby Tooth clutched in his fist and told Jack he'd let her go if he gave up his staff. Bunny...he did. Pitch refused to let Baby go, so she stabbed his thumb and he hit her hard enough to land her. She says, she says Pitch broke Jack's staff, it's over there somewhere, and Jack hasn't moved since Pitch threw him here. She's worried.”

“He gave up his staff?”

“Yes.” Tooth knelt by Jack's head and brushed his bangs back from his forehead. “I guess he is a Guardian.” 

“I guess. I'm gonna find his staff.”

Tooth nodded, and then set about checking Jack's condition. Feet and hands definitely frozen, lips and eyelids blue and she suspected a nasty bump on the back of his head. She placed her ear to his mouth and heard him breathing, short shallow breaths with a rattle that was worrisome. What bothered her even more was that in bringing her ear to his mouth she had also brought her hand to his chest and she didn't feel a heartbeat.

“What's wrong?” She looked up to see North standing over her, Bunny on his shoulder and one of the yeti holding Jack's staff, now in two pieces. 

“He's breathing, but North, he doesn't have a heartbeat.”

“What?” The big man bent down to check for himself and confirmed what Tooth found with a confused shake of his head. “Maybe it's slow. Hours in blizzard will do things to a body, even Jack Frost. Let's go back.” He tossed the snow globe and they walked through the portal back to the North Pole.

“Elves, start fire, in guest room.” North commanded as he strode down a hallway, Jack lying limply in his arms. 

By the time they reached the guest room, the yeti had already made the bed with extra blankets. The elves had yet to light the wood, but had lit each other's hats a number of times. Tooth took off her yeti shawl and spread it over Jack. She knew in a moment she would again want something to keep her warm, but compared to the South Pole, North's place was cozy and Jack needed all the warmth he could get. 

“Come,” North said, pulling her away from the bed. “We need food.”

Tooth let herself be pulled away and smiled when she saw Baby Tooth nestle in to the side of Jack's neck.   
#####

“So now what?” Bunny asked around the carrot he was nibbling. “Jack's not in shape to tell us anything at the moment.”

“We can collect teeth again, that will help.”

“What? With my broken tunnels and your old man limp? And Tooth's useless wings?”

“Yeti and elves will collect! Sure, they will not get them all, but they will get some and that's a start, yes? And we will bring Christmas in six months, to small town where I can get to every child. The whole world didn't believe in us at first. The belief was small then grew.”

“And let Pitch continue to scare the kids all over the world? Doesn't sit right with me.”

Tooth poked at her honey and bread. “If only I had access to the memories. Jack's, or yours North. We could see if you remember being given the snow globe. “

One of the yeti said something and North translated. “Jack has his memories. They found them in his sweatshirt.”

“Really?” Tooth looked up from her meal, beaming at the yeti. “Can you bring it here?”

The yeti nodded and walked off. He returned with the teeth capsule, Baby Tooth catching a ride on top of it. 

“How is he?” Tooth asked and the little fairy replied a little better. His face wasn't quite as blue. 

The yeti handed over the teeth capsule and Tooth hesitated to touch the mosaic on top.   
“Go on then.”

“These aren't my memories. Looking at them without Jack's permission, I wouldn't do this unless I had to but I don't see what other choice there is. Pitch needs to be stopped and Jack is not going to wake up anytime soon. 

“Also, I can't see all of them. Since I these memories aren't mine, I'll only be able to see one. And I only have partial control on which one I'll see. Just to confirm, we want to see who gave Jack his staff right?”

The other Guardians nodded. Tooth took a deep breath and placed her hand on the mosaic. 

She knew instantly it was the wrong memory, for Jack's staff was lying on the frozen pond a few paces from him. Too late now, she was here and had no choice but to watch the memory play out.

“Jack, I'm scared.”

Tooth realized the ice Jack and a small girl were on was cracking. She put her hands to her mouth, already picturing them both falling into the pond below. As she watched, Jack turned their survival into a game of hopscotch, first getting to his shepherd’s hook and then distracting the girl, his sister based on family resemblance, so he could grab her with the staff and throw her out of harm's way. But the momentum forced Jack onto the weak ice, it cracked, he fell, and he drowned. 

She came out of the memory with a gasp, sucking in huge lungfuls of air. She ignored North and Bunny leaning towards her, or Baby Tooth hovering near her right ear. Tooth was filled with a strong need to see Jack. She pushed her chair back and ran as well as she could to his room. It was only after she saw him, resting peacefully, chest rising, that her heart stopped beating so fast. 

On tip toe, she approached the bed. After pulling back the covers, the fairy laid her head on Jack's chest. 

“Tooth? What are you doing?” North asked from the doorway. 

“Shh.” 

She closed her eyes to concentrate better, but Jack still didn't have a heart beat. 

“Tooth?” North asked again after a minute.

“He's dead.” 

“What?” Bunny exclaimed, hopping off of North's shoulder to make it to the bed. Baby Tooth started crying perched on Jack's pillow.

“But he's breathing.” North said. 

“Yes, but, no heartbeat.” Tooth lifted her head. “It wasn't just slow at the other pole, he doesn't have one. I don't think he has for three hundred years.”

“Explain.”

Tooth replaced the blankets and then turned to look at her fellow Guardians. “The memory I saw, it's probably his last one before he became Jack Frost, it was of him and his sister. He saved her from drowning, but died in the process. The Man in the Moon must have brought him back. Jack being dead explains a lot actually. Why he doesn't remember anything before he became a Guardian, why no one believes in him. Our first believers were people who knew us before we got our powers, but if everyone believed him dead... 

“Anyway, this proves he's a real Guardian. Our oath asks us to be willing to give our lives for the children and he already has.”

There was silence for a moment and then Bunny spoke. “I take it then you didn't learn anything about his staff.”

Tooth shook her head. “He had it with him as a human.”

“So we have no idea how to fight Pitch.” 

“We can still do as North suggested, pick a single town and work up from there. And I could get in contact with the European division.”

“But we've already said that's too slow! The rest of the kids will be in danger.”

“Nothing we can do.” North said. “Maybe when Jack wakes up, he can tell us, but for now, we do what we can. Come, let Jack rest.”

The Guardians filed out of the room. Tooth stopped at the doorway to look at the sleeping Jack. At least he did look better, what she could see of him under all the layers the yeti had wrapped him in. Baby Tooth was settling down for the night on his chest. If something happened in the night, the small fairy would tell her. 

“Sleep well,” Tooth whispered before silently closing the door.


	3. Consequenses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack wakes up, and isn't entirely please with the liberties Tooth took while he was out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but here you go!

Jack wasn't pink and healthy the next morning, but then again he was never pink. Snow white hair and skin as cold and white as ice. But he was healthy, moderately so. His body ached, which made sense considering Pitch had thrown him into a cliff after breaking his staff.

His staff! 

Jack sat up in a hurry, the sudden movement making his head swim. He closed his eyes to help the dizziness pass and when he opened them Baby Tooth was chirping at him from his lap. 

“Hey, glad to see you're alright Baby Tooth.” He rubbed the top of her head with his index finger while she chirped in happiness. 

He looked around, confused as to the lack of snow and ice but not missing it. Wooden support for icy walls, a window view of a wintery world, and random Christmas ornaments strewn about the room told him he was at the Pole. But how, or why, North found him and brought him here was a mystery.

“Last time I checked, these guys hated me.” Jack said, moving Baby Tooth to his shoulder and pushing the covers away. He was unsteady on his feet as he stood, but after a few wobbly steps managed to straighten out. No way he was going racing anytime soon, his body hurt too much for that. A sore back, a tender head, and worse of all a crushing pain in his chest. 

Pitch really had taken his staff and broke it in two. Jack doubted the wind would take him anywhere now, or that he could freeze another kid's tongue to a drinking fountain. 

Jack pushed that out of his mind. He had given up his staff willingly to save Baby Tooth, and here she was on his shoulder and he was... _free to roam in North's Pole_. He hadn't lied when he told North before he'd been trying to get in for years, and while he had seen more than he had ever before in the past few days Jack was sure there was more to see. 

“What do you think Baby Tooth, should we go exploring?”

She answered with a nod and Jack slipped out of the room. First things first, get to the lifts and go all the way down. He'd really only seen a few levels, best to do them in order. And if the basement also held a red sleigh he was itching to touch, well.

It would be hard to avoid the yeti, but as Jack wasn't too sure what the situation surrounding his coming to the Pole was he figured it was the best bet. 

The sleigh level was abandoned, to Jack's surprise. Last time it had been so busy, but maybe this was how it normally was when North wasn't preparing to leave. He hesitated in the mouth of the tunnel, the last time he was in one it wasn't happy, but brushed the feeling off. His fingers were itching to pet a reindeer. 

But to his surprise, the stables were empty. There were six large stalls, full with hay to sleep on and water troughs that Jack suspected actually held eggnog instead of water. It wasn't clear at any rate. Each stall was cleaned, the wood gleaming from a fresh polish haphazardly applied that Jack attributed to the elves. Of the reindeer though, there was no sign. It made him uneasy. 

Sure, he was pretty confident Easter was ruined this year, but Christmas was months to go yet! No way North was falling apart in April. 

Jack changed his mind when he came to the tack room. The harnesses were beat up, the leather fraying. And in the large room beyond Jack noted four yeti, with a half dozen elves getting underfoot, making repairs to the sleigh. The paint was dull, there looked to be a runner missing, and one of the wings had splintered in half. There was no way it was capable of flying, not for awhile. 

“I really, really screwed up didn't I Baby Tooth? Christmas and Easter, gone in one night. And I didn't release the other fairies when I had the chance.”

The fairy on his shoulder said something in her language. Jack supposed it was something along the lines of it not being his fault, but he didn't really believe it. 

Here he was, the guy of snowballs and fun times, and he couldn't think of anything fun to do. The thought of exploring the rest of the Pole wasn't interesting anymore, he doubted it would be anything like it had been a week ago, and Jack wasn't sure he could even conjure up a snowball without his staff and the ache in his chest. 

Being invisible just got a thousand times harder. 

There was a heavy hand on his shoulder. Jack tilted his head up to see Phil, the yeti who had single-handedly prevented most of his attempts to enter the Pole.

“Hey there buddy. Seems I missed some action.”

The yeti made a low mumble that Jack took to be an affirmative and pulled him away from the sleigh. Gently, he steered Jack to the elevator and directed it to the main floor. As soon as the door opened there was a shout of 'Found him!' from Bunny, though Jack couldn't see the six foot one rabbit and then Tooth responded with a shouted 'Where?!' right before she rounded a corner. 

On unsteady legs she ran to him and wrapped him in a hug. Jack did his best to hide his wince, he still ached and Tooth weighed more that he had expected for a creature with wings. Must be her large thighs. 

Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her and patted her on the wings. 

She pulled away and hit him in the chest. His wince was visible, and her angry face smoothed out into one of worry. 

“I went to check on you this morning and you weren't there! I had no idea what happened! What if Pitch came in the night and got you? Or you sleep walked out a window?”

“Tooth, relax. The kid is fine.” Bunny said. 

Jack looked around the feathered Guardian to see Bunny, but couldn't. 

“Down here.”

And there he was, not over six feet tall, but maybe over six inches long. The Easter Bunny was no different from any other rabbit, aside from the black markings. He even had a cute wiggly nose and a poofy belly. Jack had to stifle his laugh in his fist. 

“Not funny, mate! This is all your fault!”

“Hey, I didn't turn you into that.”

“No, you just ruined Easter.” Bunny sat up and crossed his arms. “North is using a cane like a grandpa, and Tooth can't fly either.”

Jack's smile dropped. He turned away. 

Tooth placed her hand on his arm. “It's Pitch's fault, not yours. And things will go back to normal once the children believe again.”

On impulse, Jack looked up at the Globe. There wasn't a single light shining.

“What will happen to you guys if they don't? Pitch said something about you disappearing if the children stopped believing.”

Tooth nodded and started leading the way somewhere. Jack fell into step behind her, Bunny hopping near their feet. 

“That's the thing about being a sworn Guardian. We get our power mainly from children expressing our center, what we Guard, – North from children's wonder at the world, Bunny from their hopes, Sandy,” she struggled with the dead Guardian's name but continued,”from their dreams for the future, while I get mine from the happiness of past times. But we also survive on children's belief because it's connected to our centers.”

“Kids are more likely to believe in me if they hope to find eggs Easter morning.” Bunny threw in. “And that multiplies over the years. They found treats last year, hope to this year, and when they do their belief in me stays strong.”

“It's this connection with our centers and belief that makes us different from the others, the Jack-o-Lantern or the Groundhog. Children believe in some of them to some extent, or not at all, but they don't have a trait that embodies them above all others that they can Guard in children.”

“It is this trait that makes us Guardians and connects us.” 

Jack looked up to realize they had entered a dining hall of some sort. North had spoken from the head of the table where he was eating a whole fruitcake by the forkful. 

“This connection,” North continued, “allows us to get power from other Guardians. If children believe in Tooth, they believe in me and Bunny. If they stop believing in Tooth, I feel it too, though after she does.”

“Their belief goes first,” Bunny said from his new position on the tabletop. “And then what we are supposed to Guard usually. There are also some exceptions, there are adults who still display our centers. But it's never the same.”

“And just as we are connected to each other, we are connected to the children. If they forget the important memories of childhood, then I will loose all my powers and go back to how I was before the Man in the Moon chose me.”

“Is that what happened to Bunny?”

“Of a sort, he's rather dramatic. He's gotten smaller faster than he should have. Sit down, Jack. Eat.” 

Jack took the chair North pointed to. A elf came trotting over, carrying a menu twice as tall as he was. Baby Tooth climbed down his sleeve to read it. 

“Sorry, I can't help you guys any more. Pitch broke my staff.” Jack rubbed at his chest. He noticed the Guardians all watched the movement. 

“Could still be helpful.”

“We wanted to ask you about it,” Bunny said. “See, you have enormous power, you showed that a few nights ago when you froze all that sand.” It looked a bit painful for him to admit it.

“Even if my staff wasn't broken, I don't know if I could do that again. Never had before and doubt I could again.”

“Thing is Jack, you are Guardian. You have not taken oath yet, but Manny says you are and so does the Globe. You got that power from us, because we are now connected.”

“But you're different Jack,” Tooth said.

Jack pointed to an item on the menu at random. The elf left to tell who ever was it cooking what he wanted. He didn't know what would be better, an elf cook who would mess up the food or a yeti one who shed his fur into everything he made. 

“See,” the fairy continued, “You're a Guardian no matter how much you deny it,” Jack raised an eyebrow at that. “But your power doesn't primarily come from children believing in you, it comes from an object, your staff.”

“So where'd you get?” Bunny demanded. 

“I, I don't know. When I broke through the ice it was just lying there on the pond. When I touched it, it froze and I discovered it could make ice crystals. If anything, the Moon gave it to me.”

“Manny!” North threw his hands into the air. “That sly man, I bet he did. We should ask him tonight to give us all objects.”

“Do you think that will work?” Tooth practically buzzed with happiness and Jack was amused to see Baby Tooth twirl around his glass. A yeti came in and placed a stack of pancakes in front of Jack. He suddenly was very hungry and divided into the meal. Best pancakes ever, and not a trace of yeti hair. 

“So what do you want to do today Jack?”

He paused in bringing his fork to his mouth. The pancakes had stolen his attention and he had obviously missed part of the conversation. “Well, I wouldn't say no to a proper tour of this place. After breakfast of course.”

“Of course! Let us meet by Globe in an hour, I have some things to check up on.”

Jack nodded and North left, leaving the rest of them at the table. Once again, Jack dug into his meal, lost to the taste. He normally didn't eat, he didn't have to, but he never realized he missed simply tasting things. When he finished, Jack pushed his plate aside and debated about asking for seconds. 

“Um, Jack?”

He looked across the table at Tooth. Bunny had left, so it was just the two of them and Baby Tooth sleeping off a food coma. The fairy looked nervous, shifting in her chair, hands playing with something in her lap.

“Yeah?”

“I, uh, I was very worried when we found you. You looked awful.”

“Thanks for finding me. How'd you do that anyway?”

“We can change the setting of the Globe. Normally it shows the children who believe, but it can also show minor guardians.”

“Handy.”

“Yes. But Jack, I...I'm sorry.” She put her hands on the table and held between them was his teeth capsule. He had thought he lost it at the South Pole. “We, we really needed to know about your staff, so I accessed a memory.”

“You what?!” He reached across the table to take the capsule from her hands and brought it up to cradle in against his aching chest. “These are my memories Tooth! Just cuz you collect and store them doesn't mean you have the right to look at them!”

“I know! I said I'm sorry.”

Jack shot her an angry look and stormed out of the dining room. He realized he had no idea how to get back to his room so settled for going to the Globe a bit early. Maybe he could try to understand the mural of North and the yeti.

##### 

Any other day, Jack would be paying rapt attention to North's tour and the work of the yeti.   
Despite North's obvious deterioration, the yeti and elves were going strong. Many yeti were still making things, though Jack noted idly that it was more weapons that toys. 

North seemed to notice he was a bit distracted. “Something on your mind Jack?”

Jack's hands in his sweatshirt pocket tightened their hold on the teeth capsule there. “No.”

“Good, next room is my favorite.”

Jack could see why. Here there was no sign that Christmas would not come in six months. The yeti at the workstations around the center shaft were involved with minute details, painting, testing, adding on the little extra parts with glue. Here though, they were actually inventing new toys. 

The process involved lots of flying ice chips, mild explosions, and once in awhile something whizzing through the air. 

Jack found his dark mood disappearing. “This is incredible!” He moved from table to table, pushing off the corner of one, jumping on to the edge of another. One yeti was working on a fairy doll with flapping wings, another on snapping silly putty. There were a few in the back mixing chemicals. As Jack watched, one of them had a beaker explode in his face, dying his mustache teal.

“I thought you might like it.” North stood in the doorway and watched Jack move around. A little stiffly, but with most of his usual playful grace. “Yeti and I, we share a center.”

“No wonder you work so well together. Do you put any input in the new toys?”

“No, I leave that to them. I build magical ice sculptures instead. Or, I did.”

“Oh, right. But this is nice, Christmas isn't totally dead. You'll bring it back.”

“Maybe. Though I do not think I will last that long. We have to make even a single child believe soon or we will be as we were before.”

“I understand that's bad for Bunny, the Moon gave him quite a growth spurt, but surely your situation isn't that bad.”

North tapped his cane on the ground. “I am very old man. When my powers disappear completely, I will have a harder time walking, maybe loose my mind like old people do. And then, I will die after a year or two. But I am lucky one, some will die when their powers are gone.”

Jack was a little unnerved with the way North was looking at him. “What about someone like me? Whose power comes from an object? Now that it's broken...”

North shrugged. “Maybe you stay like this forever, maybe you go back to original person. But you are special, you are Guardian and connected to us. I think, in time, you will change back too.”

“Hmm.” Jack's thoughts again returned to the capsule and its memories.

“If only I had my staff, or the pieces, I could try to fix it.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you! We have those. We found them near you at the other pole and brought them.”

“Really.” What was with these Guardians, taking his personal property and not telling him? “I'd like it back.” 

“It's in your room.”

Oh. Well then. That was okay.

“I saw the stable this morning, where are the reindeer?”

“No clue. They ran away after the last child stopped believing.”

“Better than if they ran away Christmas Eve.”

North just stared at him. 

“Right, bad joke. Sorry.”

“It's okay. That is you. You always say funny words to Bunny.”

“I do, don't I?”

#####

Jack found the two halves of his staff leaning against the fireplace in his room. 

Embarrassingly, he had to admit that when he had woken he thought they were pieces of kindling. If he thought that, it was very fortunate indeed that no one else had thrown them on the fire. 

Not really expecting it to work, he took one piece in each hand and fitted them together. Nothing. With a sigh, he went to sit on the bed, bringing his broken staff with him so the pieces rested against the side board. Just like food, he didn't really sleep but he was feeling the draw of the pillow and covers. He hadn't even been awake for six hours. 

Still, if he was feeling tired it meant he really needed to at least lie down. Jack slipped beneath the covers and brought the teeth capsule to lie on the pillow next to his eyes. It let out a faint whisper, _Jack_ , in a voice he knew but didn't know how. 

On instinct, he touched the mosaic and the room faded away. 

His life flashed before his eyes. Climbing trees and hanging upside down from branches, pretending to be a monster while telling a story. Faces of his family and friends, his mother, his father, his two brothers, and his little sister. His little sister who was scared because the ice beneath them was cracking. 

“Jack, I'm scared.”

He was her big brother! His job was to make her smile and keep her safe, and right now he was failing. But games, games made everyone happy. So Jack thought one up, got her to safety, and fell through the ice. 

And then came the Moon, his rays shining through the ice and water. As Jack felt his heart give it's last beat and his eyes slipped closed he felt moonlight on his hair as warm as sunlight and he just knew his brown locks were turning white. The moment he died as a human, he became Jack Frost, Guardian.

Jack startled out of the memories with a jolt, breathing heavily. He knew now that his staff was made by his grandfather as a boy and passed to his hands when Melvin died. He also knew that, technically, he was dead and to prove it he stopped breathing for five minutes and felt fine. But most importantly, he had the answer to the question he had first asked three hundred years ago and thousands of times since. The Moon had chosen him because his sister had believed he would keep her safe, and he had. Tooth and the other Guardians had said it, he was a Guardian because he was connected to them, because the Globe showed him as a white light. But it was only now that he really believed it. 

The hours had passed, it was now early evening, but the Moon was visible out the window and Jack smiled at him. He was a Guardian!

There was a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”

The door opened to revel a shy looking Tooth. “Good, you're awake. We, um, were going to talk to the Man in the Moon soon. I came to wake you.”

Jack debated telling her about what he had seen and discovered, but decided not to. They were private memories, she had already seen too much.

“I'll be along in a moment.”

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope the theories presented here make sense.
> 
> I'm a blogger, but while I've done stuff for my RL worlds I've done nothing for my fandom nature. So, poll, how do you guys like to keep in contact with fellow fans? Facebook, tumblr, blogs?


	4. Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack hears Manny speak for the first time in 300 years and then gives Tooth a heartattack.

“He awake?” Bunny asked when she returned, and Tooth nodded. 

“He must still be healing with how much he slept today, but he'll be along in a bit.”

North grunted in acknowledgment as he turned the crank that would open the window to the Man in the Moon. His snow globe sat on the Globe's control panel, he had recalled earlier that day that the Man in the Moon had given it too him, and if it was beyond ability to give them each new objects of power maybe they could learn to tap into the power the snow globe used to make portals. 

Jack joined them, hair disheveled from sleep. 

“Looks like you still need a few days of beauty sleep.” Bunny japed. 

“And you still need to grow just an inch around the belly to make a wonderful soccer ball.”

Tooth sighed, jokes and poking fun at Bunny were good. Jack wasn't doing those earlier. She took it as a sign of his healing. He still was a bit stiff, but his grace wasn't completely hidden. She wondered if it would even return, or now that his power source was gone he would start to stiffen again and die. Tooth could return to be a crippled girl who could barely crawl, let alone walk, but she hated the idea of Jack dying. 

“Does he normally answer your questions?” Jack asked North. 

“I don't normally ask Manny questions, he tells me when he has something to say, says it, and leaves. But when I do ask, he does not often answer. Mysterious man, Manny. He likes us to figure things out for ourselves. We do eventually.”

“True. But I think we're rather stuck here.”

“Yes.”

Tooth stared up at the window North had opened. It was small, the Man in the Mon would not be in it and able to communicate with them for long, but if need be North could move the window and they could catch the Man later in his orbit. She really hoped he answered their questions, because if they couldn't get their powers back soon they were all doomed. 

Vaguely, she wondered if Pitch brought about a new Dark Age, if some of the current minor guardians would be promoted to Guardians, or if after she reverted a new girl would become the Tooth Fairy. She didn't like either option. Tooth had been the Tooth Fairy for so long that even though she knew she had been someone else before, she couldn't remember her original name. Flying and fawning over lateral incisors was her life. And no one could take care of her fairies as well as her. 

Well, almost no one. Baby Tooth had found her way over to Jack and was rubbing the top of her head against his neck, making him smile. Giving up his staff for her had made quite the impression. Tooth wasn't entirely sure, if everything worked out, that her little fairy would return to Tooth Palace with her and not go live with Jack. Wherever that was. 

“Here he comes.” Bunny said, as blue light started to peer over the window's ledge. Tooth felt a brief tang of loss for Sandy, last time the dream maker had been the one to notice the Man in the Moon approaching, but it passed in favor of the weightiness of the issue. 

“Manny!” North greeted with open arms. “We have to ask you serious question. Could you give us objects, like Jack's staff? Is it possible to get our powers back?”

Tooth didn't hear an answer, but that wasn't uncommon. Sometimes the Man spoke to all of them, sometimes just one. The look on North's face told her the big man wasn't hearing an answer. Bunny also didn't look like he was, but it was hard to read his face when it was this small. 

She turned to look at Jack, just as he was washed in the light of the moon. He looked so beautiful, with the blue highlights in his hair, his mouth open slightly and showing off his teeth. Tooth didn't know what was going on, was the light on Jack the answer to North's question? 

But then Jack's face filled with wonder and she knew the Man was talking to him. Tooth had gotten the impression at their first meeting that Jack had had many one sided conversations with their overseer since he became Jack Frost and the Man's silence had hurt him. What Jack was hearing now seemed to go a long way to mend that wound. 

The light passed and North placed his hand on the crank. “Jack, what did he say? Do I need to move window?”

“No, I think he's done talking.”

“Well, what did he say?” Bunny asked. 

“Believe.”

“I don't get it.”

“I...maybe do. It's in the back of my mind, like the feeling you get when you're trying to recall where you've seen a face before. But I'm missing something.” He began to pace, walking back and forth along the width of the corridor while the rest of the Guardians watched him with baited breath. Absently, he rubbed his chest while doing it. Tooth marveled at his fluidity. He flowed from one spot to another like liquid water, not the ice he worked with. 

“I need snow.” He blurted out. “I've been in here a bit too long. How do I get out North? I need to be in the snow.”

North looked at Bunny and Tooth. None of them quite understood Jack's thought process, but if it led to a solution they were willing to indulge it. 

“There is sled door, but also one the floor below that opens up to the rock the workshop was built on.”

“Perfect, just let me grab something from my room and I'll see you there in five minutes.”  
Tooth watched him run off, something in his voice snagging on her insides. She almost felt her wings lift, but that had to be her imagination.

##### 

Tooth went to grab her yeti shawl, remembered shoes this time, and secured Bunny in his lined bag before stepping out into the snow. Jack and North were already there, Jack standing near the edge of the plateau while North stood behind him. 

As she got closer, she noticed Jack had one piece of his staff in each hand, eyes closed and face upturned to the wind. North put a finger on his lips and she came up beside him. “He's thinking,” he whispered. 

They stood out in the snow in silence for while. Tooth had never seen Jack so still while awake, he was always moving or twirling his staff. After awhile, she shivered. She was not meant for the cold, and if this was helping Jack there was no sign of it. Tooth could watch him stand there from a window in the Pole. 

She tugged on North's sleeve to get his attention and he bent down to hear her whisper. “North, I'm going to go in.”

He nodded, but before Tooth could turn to go Jack moved. 

With sure steps, eyes still closed, he made his way to the every edge. Tooth was terrified he was going to fall over, but he was firmly rooted on the spot. Suddenly he whirled about and ran towards them. He thrust his staff pieces at North with a 'hold these' and then ran off the edge. 

Tooth cried out in alarm as Jack was pulled downwards by gravity and ran towards where he disappeared. She peered over the edge, North beside her and Bunny in the bag doing the same. Jack was a shadowy figure below them quickly swallowed by the night. Faintly in the air she heard his shout of 'Wind!'

“What is he thinking?” Bunny yelled. “He can't survive that drop, it's what, five hundred feet?”

“We must trust in Jack. He would not jump to die,” North answered. 

“Did you not just see him take a running leap?”

“Maybe he thought something would happen?” Tooth suggested. She couldn't see Jack anymore, and that worried her. Instead, she looked up into the night sky to the Man in the Moon. “Is he alright?” she asked but she didn't get an answer.


	5. The Harshest Critic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack explains just why he jumped off a cliff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, the chapter ends with an A/N longer than the character limitation AO3 gives me. I'm not sorry.

In hindsight, it was a pretty stupid thing to do. Run off a cliff in the dark when he wouldn't be able to tell when there would be a outcrop of rock in danger of hitting his face. But he had to do this, even if it killed him a second time. Call it a leap of faith.

Jack had jumped with his eyes closed and reveled in the feel of the wind tugging at his clothes and face. This, this was a little bit of home. “Wind!” he called out, and he felt it answer. It blew upwards and backwards, slowing his decent. Jack had never flown with his eyes closed before, but now that he wasn't watching where he was going he could feel the air surrounding him, enveloping him with a strangely warm touch. 

He had always wondered how alive it was; was the wind like him, powered by the Moon, or simply an elemental force that had rudimentary sentience? It listened to Jack, took him where he asked to go, but it never talked or did anything but blow. 

Now though, he could feel the wind as a person. The brush along his face was a welcome, the push against his chest a check-up, the warmth a statement of affection. The wind cared for him, and together they could do many things. 

He'd never noticed the wind trying to talk to him before, and Jack wasn't sure 'talk' was the right word. There were no words in the air or in his head, but he just knew the wind's mind. The wind was his oldest friend, how had he not noticed before?

“Show me the skies,” he whispered and let the wind take him where it wanted to. He didn't try to direct his course, Jack simply surrendered. He trusted the wind to not let him hit anything more solid than a cloud, nor drop him. 

Jack didn't need his staff, or magic, to fly. He just need faith in his friend, to believe the wind wouldn't let him come to harm. 

He opened his eyes and saw the world as he never had before. The wind showed him cities brimming with lights, the shape of mountain ranges, took him higher than he had ever dared to go to the point were Jack could see several States at once. He wondered if, since he didn't actually have to breath, he could fly into space, but the wind told him that it could not help him. The wind had limits and height was one of them. 

Jack let the wind do what it wanted with him, but eventually his friend returned him to the Pole as dawn approached and the Guardian took control of his own direction. He swept through the sleigh's tunnel, dodging ice formations, and then rushed up through the lift shaft to the Globe, disturbing papers and yeti as he went. “Woo-hoo!” he shouted, waving at Phil as he zoomed by, the yeti grinned when he saw who it was. 

Word of his arrival must had spread quickly, for when he landed on the Guardian crest in front of the Globe they were already waiting for him. 

“Jack! You're flying!” North looked like he wanted to toss him in the ground, but he settled for bringing the younger Guardian into a one arm hug hampered by his hunch and cane. 

“And without your staff.” Tooth added.

“I don't think I ever needed it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The staff doesn't make me fly, the wind does. Don't you see, it's just a different sort of belief!”

“Whoa nilly, slow down there. What do you mean a different sort of belief?”

“Tooth, do you believe your fairies will collect every tooth you tell them too?”

“Yes.”

“And North, do you believe your reindeer can fly and the yeti make toys kids love?”

“Ye~s.”

“And you Bunny, do you believe that your stone egg things can defend the Warren?”

“Of course, trained them myself.”

“There you go, belief in your friends. That's the connection you guys were talking about before. I believe in you and you believe in me, we get power off of that. But there's something else. What makes you all confident Guardians?”

“The children?” Tooth ventured.

“Cuz the children have everything to do with Bunny thinking he can take on a greyhound.”

“Nah mate, that was all me.”

“Exactly!”

“I don't get it.”

Jack sighed. These guys were so thick. But then again if you relied on the beliefs and opinions of others for so long it was probably hard to reverse it. 

“North, what did you do with my staff?”

“It's right here,” he started limping towards the mantle behind him but Jack flew there quicker. 

“Listen,” Jack began. “My ice didn't just come from my staff. I could make crystals with my fingers and make a snowball magical by breathing on it. My staff acted as a channel for my magic because I believed it did. Because when I first woke up, that's what it did, make ice. But for three hundred years I didn't have a single child believe in me, and maybe that was some of my own doing, but I believed in myself. I believed I could fly, so I could. I believed I could freeze things, so I could. And because I believed my staff was the source of my powers, when Pitch broke it they disappeared. But I know better now. I have faith in me, in my own abilities. I am Jack Frost, and I am a Guardian!”

With the last word, Jack thrust the ends of his staff together. From the crack exploded light the color of glacial ice. He couldn't see anything, the light was too bright, but he heard noises of surprise from the other Guardians. When the light faded, it revealed the entire room, including the Guardians, covered in ice. 

Jack ignored their ice muddled words, it would melt in a bit and if not he'd help them break it off. Instead, he focused his attention on his staff. He ran his hand down the wood, there wasn't a single sign of the previous break. Everything was smooth. Jack couldn't help but smile. He knew his attempt to fix it this time would work, and that was all it needed. 

There was a crack and Jack looked towards North. The ice encasing him was starting to fall apart. Jack hurried to help him, digging his fingers in the cracks and prying the pieces apart. Once North was on his way to freeing himself Jack moved over to help Tooth. Grabbing an elven trumpet from one of the shelves, Jack hit it against her shoulder a couple of times to start the cracks and then helped peel the ice off. By the time Tooth was free, North had Bunny almost out of the ice. His feet were still stuck solid. 

Jack pushed off with his feet and went skating on the sheet of ice covering the floor. Tooth tried to follow him, but she didn't understand the motions of ice skating. “Jack! You've got your powers back! And your staff is healed!”

“Of course!” he laughed circling her. She tried to turn to follow him, but ended in a heap on the ice.

“Did you have to turn the room into skating pond?” North asked, chipping at Bunny's left foreleg with a small chisel.

“Nah, I just wanted to.”

“Hold on a second here,” Bunny demanded. “Are you saying if I just close my eyes and believe I'll be my normal size, I will be?”

“Yes!” Jack laughed. Really, it was such a incredible thing to think about, how could he not be happy? He had his powers back, and soon they would too. 

Bunny closed his eyes and wiggled a little bit. “I'm big, I'm big, I'm big,” he whispered. He waited a beat and then opened his eyes to see normal rabbit sized paws. 

“Jack, you liar! What did you really do? What did Manny tell you?”

“I'm not lying Bunny! But you have to really, really believe it. Not just will it to happen, or wish it too. It's...it's walking on a telephone line and knowing you're not going to lose your balance.”

“Or jumping off a cliff and knowing you will be fine?” North suggested.

“Don't do that again, you scared me!” Tooth interrupted. 

Jack flashed Tooth a smile before addressing North with his answer. “Yes, exactly. You have to believe in it, one hundred percent. Granted, I don't think it will get you guys to full power. It's just one type of belief, but it's all we have at the moment.”

“But my fairies can't fly, and the children Jack, if they don't believe I'll take their teeth, how can I?”

Jack crouched down to her position on the floor. “I know it's hard. And we are always our harshest critic. Because now I'm starting to think the reason no believed in me for three hundred years was because I didn't think anyone would. See, it works both ways. If you believe you are weak, you will be. If you believe you are strong, you will be.”

“How did you do it Jack? How did you believe in yourself to restore your powers?”

“My memories. In them I saw,” his death, his family, his answer, “I saw my sister. I saved her. It made me realize I really am a Guardian, because I've already saved children in the past and the Moon had nothing to do that. And that the Moon gave me powers, powers I've used countless times, that I could use as soon as I woke up, when I was too new to know anything. Just myself.”

Tooth smiled sadly at him, and Jack could just tell she thought the sentiment nice but didn't actually believe it. None of them did, not really. 

They needed a game.

* * *

 **A/N:** Right, so Jack talked a lot and went on a monologue towards the end there. I hope it was clear, if not, here's what's going on in my head. 

There are three types of belief: blind, trust, and self. 

The first, blind belief, is when you believe in something without any proof. God is a common example, but it's also the type of belief children have in a lot of things – magic, mermaids, dragons, and of course the legendary figures that are the Guardians. While the easiest to shake (as soon as you recognize the wrapping paper Santa uses is the same as the roll sitting in your grandma's closest you stop believing in him), I also think it is the most powerful because there is nothing to support it as with the others. It's solely based on one's desire to believe in the object/person, and in many cases people twist their observations and experiences to line up with their blind faith because it's that strong (thus, seeing Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich). Because of this, it's the most powerful source of magic in this fic and something only the Guardian's have access to in bulk amounts. They are the only ones who are mainly powered by blind belief.

Trust, for a lack of a better description, is the belief you have in the people you know. This belief in others comes from your knowledge of them. You believe you sister will win her race because you see her practice all the time, you believe your doctor will give you the right diagnosis because he has years of schooling behind him, and you believe your martial arts teacher will pull his punches because you know he's a teacher and not someone who simply doesn't like your face. When you trust in someone, in any capacity, it comes with an expectation or belief that they will do certain things. You believe your friend will stick up for you and your dad will scare off any boy who stands at the door. And on a general level, you believe the police will help you and the guy with the Geek Squad polo can fix your laptop. 

While this belief is a strong power source cuz it's constantly reinforced, it takes awhile to form because it requires a connection. Thus, it's (again) pretty much limited to Guardians only in this 'verse simply because I see spirits as solitary beings who don't really have the desire to socialize enough to develop this power source between them. The exception would be places heavy with localized spirits, such as Ireland and Wales (where natives pretty much believed everything around them was connected to the spirit world and so a spirit has lots of neighbors) or those belonging to a Parthenon, like the Greeks (because historically they all hang out together), but you don't see them much in RotG so I'm still deciding myself how they'd work in this 'verse. It's also impossible to force this belief on someone, thus Jack's problem in the movie.

Self belief is just that. See also self-assurance, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Like the trust belief, it's built upon experiences. You don't just suddenly believe you can ride a bike. You have to build up to that with practice sessions involving skinned knees, watching the neighbor learn before you, and your mom's encouragement in your ear as she pushes you down the sidewalk. This is the hardest to have, because no one is better at getting you down than you. As humans, we have a habit of being our worst critics, from 'I'm too fat' to 'It's too far away, I'll never make it'. However, once you believe you can do something, the effect multiplies. You tell yourself you can make this penalty kick, you do, and suddenly you're the team's go-to person for shoot-outs and each successful goal makes you believe in yourself more. Yes, it can go to your head and make you cocky, but it takes a lot to destroy that view of you being awesome which is what makes this type of belief so powerful and long lasting. 

This is the power source that most of the spirits/minor guardians live off of because they don't have the Guardian's access to blind belief or trust belief. It can be very powerful in and of itself (the Blizzard of '68 being a prime example), but it's the one the Guardians are least familiar with. In my head, following the movie!cannon, they were all formed around the same time and started with a belief base that personally knew them. This means they were powered by trust belief first, and blind belief followed rather quickly. They've never really accessed this power source, because they've never had to. They have a bit of it (Bunny staring down Abby and North insisting everyone loves his sleigh), but they've always linked it in their mind to the power they get from the other types of belief so when those went away thanks to Pitch, so did the little self-belief they had. (Tooth especially is very insecure.)

North mentions that something that makes the Guardians special is how their belief base is connected to their center. It's essentially how people will reinforce their own blind belief, but being a Guardian North thinks it related to their centers. The Guardians have their own view of how the world works, that isn't always correct as you'll see later on. That capital 'G' and contact with Manny goes to their head and warps their mind at bit. It doesn't help that they don't really socialize outside of the four of them. (Which is why they knew of Jack, but never interacted with him before.)   
Of course, it is because of their centers they were made into spirits to begin with. Like Jack, I picture each of the while human (or talking bunny) using their center to guard a child in someone and the immense of amount of trust/belief others had in them is what made Manny pick them out.

Hope that all makes sense to you!

Sorry if it was all boring, but well, I started writing this as a sweet hurt/comfort plot bunny and then it kinda turned into a manifesto of belief.


	6. Do, Don't Try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack sets up a challenge for the Guardians.

“Jack, I don't think now is the time for an obstacle course.” Tooth looked at the set up in the woods. There were ropes and cones and what she thought was a hammock stretched between chairs. Plus, when Jack had gone through it to demonstrate what they had to do at each step, there was one that involved push-ups. She had never done one of those in her life!

“And why not?” He was leaning causally against his staff, a bittersweet view. She was so happy to see him well again, and with his powers. But how he had gotten them back, that was hard to understand in practice. Every time she looked at her nonworking wings, Tooth hoped for a change that didn't make an appearance.

But wait a minute, Baby Tooth had been flying around the Pole. Tooth looked towards her fairy, who was nestled on Jack's shoulder. Belief in her own powers of flight, or Jack's belief that the little fairy would fly around his head from time to time? Did the connection of friendship expand beyond the Guardians? All this thinking made her head hurt, she missed the simplicity of knowing who lost a tooth and what fairy to send to collect it. 

Jack's voice startled her out of her thoughts. “Look, Pitch is out there terrorizing the world and right now, we can't do anything about that. But it's useless to sit around and moan about things. So, we're going to have a little fun instead.”

Tooth noticed how his face changed with that last sentence, as if he had just figured something out. She dismissed it as a personal thing. Nothing could have been as important as what he shared this morning. Or maybe as useless. 

North still looked a little uncertain. 

“It's just a little competition, North. I thought you liked those, or was all the fun we had collecting teeth a one time deal?”

North flashed a feral grin that was usually accomplished by cracking knuckles, but with one hand on his new cane the big man couldn't complete the image. “In that case, I will win.”

“What, nothing to say Bunny? This is a a timed event, fastest wins. Not the person best at breaking into children's rooms.”

“A timed event that evolves math! I never went to school like the rest of you, I was a rabbit before Manny changed me and the only thing we learn is to hide at the shadow of a hawk and what flowers not to eat!”

“I'm sure you'll do fine. They're not hard.” 

Tooth watched as Jack leaned down to whisper something in Bunny's ear. Whatever he said, it seemed to fire up the rabbit. He was suddenly more sure of himself.

“North, you'll be eating the dirt my legs kick up.”

“Is that a challenge, tiny rabbit?”

“It's a promise.”

Tooth hid her smile behind a hand and watched Jack rise into the air. For the sake of fairness, he was acting as referee. Baby Tooth was sitting on his head, waiting with excitement for the race to begin. 

“On your marks,” he began. Bunny and North braced themselves to take off while Tooth focused on the first obstacle – weaving between rocks. She had no chance of winning, but vowed to at least have some fun. 

“Get set, go!”

North and Bunny took off ahead of her, eating up more ground than a normal sized rabbit and a crippled old man should be able to. They careened into each other; Bunny seemed intent on tripping North and North seemed intent on stepping on him. In all the commotion, Tooth was able to slip by them.

Jack let out a hoot from above. “You go, Tooth!”

She smiled up at him, slowing her down just a bit to allow the others to catch up with her. North bumped her out of the way and crossed the downed tree turned balance beam first.

Jack was above them laughing and guiding. “North, you only did three push-ups, you have to do five. Go back and start over!” “You're a sorry state of a rabbit Bunny, Baby Tooth could run faster than you.” “Uh-uh Tooth, under the hammock, not over.” And really, Tooth had no idea she was settling into position to flap her wings and fly over until Jack called her out on it. But that was silly, flying in her state. 

Somehow the last obstacle, a sprint along the length of the course to the starting point, was a race between her and Bunny. 

“Go Bunny!” Jack shouted from above. 

The furry Guardian exploded with speed, powerful hind legs pushing him forward. “Can't beat me, I'm the fastest thing in the world.” 

And right before her eyes, Bunny grew.

The sight shocked her so much she stopped. 

“Come on Tooth, if you just stand there gawking North's going to get second.”

Tooth shook off her amazement and started running again. She was not built for moving on the ground. North did indeed pass her. But Tooth didn't care that she lost, for Bunny was now standing on his hind legs and staring at his paws. 

“I'm...me,” he said with amazement. Tooth noted the statement wasn't exactly true. He was still missing the distinctive boomerang bandolier, and was still shorter than her but now he came up to Tooth's shoulder. 

Jack landed on his feet next to Bunny. “Well, you're still small. Just, no longer tiny.”

“Look at you Bunny!” North clapped Bunny on the back and Tooth noted absently that he was no longer hunched over his cane. In fact, the red and white stripped wood was lying on the ground near the starting line. He still seemed to creak when moving however. 

Wishful, Tooth looked over her shoulder, hoping to see some sign of flight in her flaccid wings. There wasn't any. She felt a ping of jealously for North's and Bunny's sudden reemergence of their powers in any capacity, but then let it go. They were connected, she benefited from the belief they had. Her recovery was just a little slower. 

Tooth looked at her friends; Jack laughing about something Bunny did during the race, North lamenting his second place finish, and Bunny bragging about his speed. They looked so happy together, joking and smiling. And as Tooth watched, she noticed Baby Tooth's wings fluttered as Jack stroked her back. 

They might not be at full strength, not yet, but they were together and things were finally looking up. Christmas might not be canceled this year. 

#####

Jack had to admit, he hadn't been 100% sure it would have worked at all. But it did, and it was a start. 

It was all about getting them to fall into old habits and mindsets. If Bunny was placed in a situation similar to those in the past that could trigger his use of his powers – or even his speed and size – his belief in them, in the assurance of their existence and not their absence, would bring them back. 

And here stood Bunny, four feet tall and North without a limp. Now all Jack had to do was place the other Guardians in similar positions, and he had just the idea for North. 

The wind whispered in his ear and Jack whirled around in time to see a nightmare gallop off. At this point, none of them were a match for Pitch, the belief of children in the Boogieman was too strong. Jack had hoped that Pitch would leave the Guardians to their fate, a slow decay into their past selves and then death, leaving them alone and giving Jack the time to help the other Guardians believe in themselves. But if he was aware of what was happening, he might attack and finish them off quicker. 

Right, forget get working in Burgess to slowly build up a belief base and focus on making Christmas this year as good as it could be. The new deadline he made for himself was the Summer Solstice. Jack would be at his weakest, but so would Pitch. 

He needed to talk to the yeti.


	7. Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack continues to help the Guardians, but his efforts haven't gone unnoticed.

It took a bit of time, working with the yeti. Jack found the communication only went one way – they could understand him but he couldn't understand them. So maybe the details of the course was a bit messed up and there were more stalagmites than he expected and the tunnel wasn't as clear of reindeer manure as he would have liked. Jack labeled them as yeti additions and wondered if it was some type of payback at North for something Jack wasn't aware of. As the Guardian of Fun, he wasn't going to insist such added obstacles be removed. 

Tooth was looking uneasily at the ice sled in her hands. “Jack, the sleigh tunnel opens up to a thousand foot drop.”

“No worries! Jack will catch us!” North was excited over the idea of a straight up race. He had told Bunny that his weight would equal a faster speed so he would win the sled race. Bunny mentioned it would be also harder to break for turns. 

“Not quite,” Jack corrected the elderly Guardian. “Phil and I did a lot of tests, and I doubt they're perfect, but these are designed to melt as you go along. They should shrink to the point where you will fall off the sled and come to a stop in the tunnel before the end.”

“But just in case?” Tooth asked. Jack shot her a look. She didn't just look nervous, but a little scared too. The loss of her wings must have been a larger hurt than she was showing. 

“I told the wind to be on the lookout. Plus, I'll be there. Someone has to watch the finish line to declare the winner.”

Tooth still looked unsure. 

“Relax, I'm the Guardian of Fun, not stupid injuries. You'll be fine. Trust me.”

“Okay.”

Jack smiled at her and then floated upwards to hover over the starting line. “Right, on your bellies!” 

North and Bunny gave each other challenging looks before getting on their sleds. 

“On three. One. Two. Three!” There was a rush of wind from behind them, giving everyone a starting push. Tooth let out a high pitched sound and Baby Tooth giggled at it from her spot in Jack's hoodie. 

As his three friends went careening down the ice tunnel, Jack flew along above them. He winced as North slammed into a stalagmite, the ice shattering and knocking him off the sled. But within a heartbeat he was running and throwing himself back on the ice sled, roaring threats of catching up at Bunny's and Tooth's feet. 

Tooth was doing surprisingly well, much more nimble that Bunny or North, avoiding every obstacle. Jack wondered if she even knew she was using her wings as a rudder, but there would be time for that later after she won. “Go Tooth!” he shouted as she passed Bunny on the inside of a corner. Jack had designed this race with North in mind, the big guy's familiarity with this tunnel was supposed to give him an edge and boost up his confidence. Seeing how things were actually going however made Jack think Tooth might be up and flying before the reindeer. 

A third of the distance into the course, Jack noted one of the yeti lining the tunnel trying to get his attention. He speed up to reach him before the other Guardians did. “What's wrong?”

The yeti said something Jack couldn't understand, but the imitation of a whinny was enough to get the message across. There was a nightmare in the area.

“Where?” Jack asked. The yeti mimed a sled run, and then stopped. “The finish line?” Jack guessed, and at the furry beast's nod he took off through a side passage that would take him to the outside. He hadn't planned on watching the whole race in the first place, he had promised Tooth to be there to catch anyone who might need it, and trusted the rest of the yeti lined along the course to look out for the other Guardians. Jack had a nightmare to vanquish. 

Tooth was starting to use her wings, and Bunny had grown another foot. That progress did not need to be relayed to Pitch Black. It was time to kill the messenger. 

Except, as Jack saw when the wind took him to the small wooden ramp at the end of the ice tunnel, it wasn't a messenger who had came. It was the Boogieman himself, sitting astride a nightmare that was easily twice Jack's height. 

Baby Tooth twittered nervously into Jack's ear.

“Frost, how did you fix your staff?”

Jack crossed his arms, standing on his shepherd’s hook. “Wouldn't you like to know.”

“I would indeed. Because the Globe is dark. I didn't believe my nightmare when she told me what she saw in the woods, you flying and that hair ball growing. You should all be powerless!”

The wave of black sand swept off the nightmare's body and towards Jack. He brought up his staff and split it with a bolt of ice. Pitch glared at him. 

“Hate to disappoint Pitch, but there's more to me and the rest of the Guardians than the belief of children.”

“Perhaps, but that doesn't mean you will survive for long.”

There was a whoop of joy from below. Tooth had tumbled from her sled, the ice too melted to support her, and slid to a stop on the first wooden plank of the runway. “I won!” she said, jumping into the air and flying in a tight circle of victory. 

Bunny came out of the tunnel next, frowning over being beaten. 

There was a humming near Jack's ear, Baby Tooth was flying, zooming towards the Guardians to warn them while Pitch was distracted by their playful show, showing off the result of believing in your own abilities, but Pitch wasn't distracted any more, he was angry and Jack turned to look at him just as the scythe of black sand bit into his shoulder, and Jack was falling, falling, while Tooth was screaming and then the wind rushed up from beneath him, whispering in his mind I got you, you got this, and Jack believed his friend, iced the hole in his skin and turned to attack.

#####

Tooth didn't realize she was flying until she noted Bunny had to look up to glare at her, upset over his loss. She had just a moment to let the knowledge sink in before his face crumpled and then Baby Tooth hit her from behind. Whirling about in a panic, she saw Pitch Black strike Jack Frost out of the sky.

“No!” she screamed, her wings failing. Bunny caught her and set her gently on her feet, his eyes not once leaving the airborne fight. As they watched, Jack seemed to get a second wind and headed straight for Pitch. He was blocked by the sudden emergence of half a dozen nightmares. 

North came out of the tunnel, lamenting his loss, but the sight of Jack being circled by the creatures of black sand shut his mouth.

“He can't hold them all off.” Bunny said. 

Baby Tooth puffed up anger and stabbed his check before yelling at him. Tooth translated for her friends. “She said that of course Jack can, he's strong. And she believes in him. We, we just have to do the same.”

“I believe Jack has power,” North said, “but not that he can defeat Pitch. Pitch has the belief of many children fearing him giving him strength, on top of powers from before. Like Jack, he must be self confident. Jack needs our help.”

“And how do you supposed we fight in the air, eh mate? Last I checked, your sleigh can't fly.”

“No, but the reindeer can!” Tooth pointed to the left, and indeed there were four reindeer cantering in the sky towards them. Not the full set to be sure, but they didn't need the sleigh right now. 

“I am not fighting from the back of a flying deer.”

“Come Bunny, where is adventurous spirit?”

Tooth didn't hear the response because she was in the air zooming towards Jack. As she watched, he dodged out of the strike of a nightmare causing it to collide with one of it's sisters. Jack then quickly froze and broke another one. 

But as she got closer, Tooth could see Jack wasn't faring very well. His face and feet were covered in scratches, pink cuts that if North had would certainly bleed. Being technically dead, did Jack bleed? Was he able to withstand stronger attacks? Or was it actually a disadvantage, like not feeling pain? Would Jack not know when to stop fighting or use a broken arm? Would he not feel his strength deteriorating until one mild blow would do him in for worse?

Tooth watched in horror as a nightmare bit into Jack's side. In a flash she was there to disperse it and check over her friend. “Jack! Jack, are you okay?” Her hands hovered above his side. Jack was holding the area with a wince, but manged to smile at her. 

“Look at that, you're flying.” It was followed by a weak cough. Regardless of a dead body, Jack could still obviously feel pain and know the effects of injuries on his body and fighting ability. 

There was a 'poof' as a nightmare behind them exploded thanks to one of Bunny's boomerangs. The furry Guardian was squeezing the poor reindeer to death between his thighs, but his eyes were firm with the seriousness of battle.

North was charging Pitch and without warning Jack went to join him, injury forgotten in the rush of battle. Tooth made to follow him but got tangled up in fighting nightmares, her vision filled with shifting sand and molten eyes. 

There was a yell and Tooth turned just in time to see Jack's staff and Pitch's scythe meet, Jack looking haggard and Pitch as if he were brushing away a gnat.

“This winter air is getting to you too much, don't you think Frost? And the wind is atrocious. Let's go somewhere a bit more...sheltered.”

The nightmares lost their form, instead turning into a thick spinning cloud like the one that had killed Sandy. Tooth found herself herded towards the center with the Guardians while Pitch sat on his nightmare above them. The darkness closed in to the point where she couldn't see her friends anymore. 

When her vision returned, she was in a brass cage hanging from the ceiling in a cave.


	8. Constraint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack can take Pitch. Maybe.

One minute, Jack was staring at Pitch's face and the next he was still staring at Pitch's face but now there were bars between them. 

Hastily, Jack looked around. He was in Pitch's underground lair, the floor below filled with golden teeth capsules and the surrounding mesh lined cages were filled with little green fairies. He himself was stuck in a barred cage too short to stand in, and his staff was very obviously missing.

Pitch drifted way from the cage and Jack noticed he was holding the wooden shepherd’s hook. “I don't know how you did it Frost. Healing your staff, getting your powers back, and helping the Guardians get theirs back too. Not a single child has ever believed in you, and now no one believes in them.”

Still riding the nightmare, the Boogieman circled his cage. The fairies, who had been twittering at Jack's arrival, quieted to watch. 

“So tell me, how did you do it?”

Jack crossed his arms and kept his mouth shut. 

“It doesn't matter, you can't do anything from here. You will all die, slowly and in these cages. Your powers will eventually fade and you will be no more. Too bad I'm not a patient person, I just can't help but speed up the process.”

Pitch snapped Jack's staff in half and dropped the two pieces. 

Jack didn't feel a thing.

“No!” Tooth shouted and Jack turned around to see she was in a cage as well. All the other Guardians were, spaced throughout the cavern. 

Pitch though was ignoring them in favor of Jack, watching his face carefully. For his part, Jack just watched the nighmares down below smash his staff into smithereens below their hooves. Unlike the first time Pitch had broken the wooden staff, there was no sharp pain in his chest. He knew now that the staff wasn't really the source of his power and it's destruction meant nothing. 

To prove his point, he frosted over the bars of his cage. In the ice was a picture of Pitch without a head.

“Not gonna work a second time Pitch.”

He snarled and pushed his arm through the bars to grab Jack by the neck. “I am and always will be the Nightmare King, Jack Frost, and that means I know what you fear. Let's see you face that.”

Shadows surrounded them and when they lifted Jack found he had changed locations once again. They were in the mouth of a tunnel, and it opened up to a huge source of heat and light. Jack was uncomfortable already. He was still in the cage, but instead of hanging from the ceiling it was sitting on the ground. It put him on level with Pitch's knees. 

Pitch crouched down to be at his eye level. “You fear being alone. Always have, always will. That even if you do defeat me, the Guardians will not interact with you afterwords. That you will never feel human touch. A child will never see you.” Pitch spread his hands open in between them, the splinters of Jack's staff were there. “Right now, you are inside a volcano, feet away from lava. I am going to drop your staff into it and leave you to live out your years here. Goodbye, Jack Frost. This is the last time you will hear a voice that isn't yours.”  
And with that, Pitch Black disappeared.

#####

When Pitch returned, minus Jack, the Boogieman ignored the other Guardians. Instead, Tooth watched as he paced below them, moving from shadow to shadow and stopping by his version of a Globe every so often. He was muttering to himself and his mood was gloomy enough where the nightmares gave him a wide birth. 

Tooth looked over to North, the closest to her. He had been trying to use a dagger to pick the lock, but it didn't look like he was having any progress. 

She tried not to think about what Pitch had done to Jack. At least, he had been right about his staff. The winter guardian had not reacted at all to it being destroyed and that was heartening. Wherever Pitch had taken him, Jack wasn't powerless. 

Despite their predicament, Tooth was happy to see her fairies again. After going so long without feeling the psychic connection she had with them, to feel them all in her mind was wonderful. She was so glad they were all okay.

There was a soft chirp from behind her, Baby Tooth returning from her mission. Pitch had not been aware of her presence and when the small fairy had found herself in a cage with Bunny it had been easy for her to slip between the bars. 

“What did you find out?” Tooth whispered, keeping an eye on Pitch and hoping he didn't look up. Baby Tooth hid behind her crest to answer. North and Bunny had a few cuts and scraps, but nothing major. And all her fairies were healthy, and able to fly. There was just the matter of opening the cages; unlike the ones that held the guardians that needed keys, her fairies could be released by a flipped latch too heavy for Baby Tooth to lift. 

What to do? Jack needed to be found, the Guardians needed to be free, the children needed to believe and Pitch needed to be defeated. Maybe the better questions was, what could they do?

Well, she was hanging over a bunch of memory capsules. The only problem was releasing them wasn't a quiet affair, the resulting light show was sure to attract the attention of Pitch and a few dozen nightmares. But maybe they could get away with it a little bit. 

“Release the memories of a few children whose teeth are in the middle of those piles, we don't want to attract attention. And then go find Jack. “ Jack had been the only one close to challenging Pitch, and while the Boogieman had gotten stronger so had the newest Guardian. If anyone had a chance at success, it was him.

Baby Tooth hummed in acknowledgment and flew off again. Tooth found herself nervously watching the piles below her, willing the capsules to restore memories while at the same time hoping the light was blocked. It meant she had no way to know how many children's teeth Baby Tooth accessed, but she did notice when the small fairy was no longer in her psychic range. 

Tooth hoped it wouldn't take long to find Jack in the Boogieman's tunnels.

#####

Jack knew several things more than Pitch did at the start of his attack, but he had since learned that Jack didn't need his staff to use his magic. So really, the only advantage Jack had was the boost, albeit small, that his powers had received since the Moon had labeled him as a Guardian. He was pretty sure that was the only reason he wasn't a puddle on the floor of the cage about now. 

He had never liked the principle of volcanoes, mountains whose idea of a good time was to spew fire and smoke. Lava and ice didn't really play well and so Jack had avoided the even remotely active ones. Being this close, well, being in, a volcano was just providing him with the first hand experience to back up his hatred of the landform. 

It was hot. The bars on his cage had originally held a frost, enough where Jack's plan involved freezing the metal and then shattering it. But the cage had warmed up too quickly, the air sweltering, so the metal never froze completely and even now the frost on his sweatshirt was gone. It had melted, leaving him wearing a damp rag and his pants were only marginally better. Soon, the ice he was using to hold his wounds close would melt too and then Jack would be in a huge amount of trouble.

Jack tried his best to avoid touching the bars. He wasn't sure if they would be more than a bit warm to any of the others, but Jack found the metal almost painful. He kept his hands to himself and kept his fingers crossed. The Guardians were okay. They would get free. They would get him free. Pitch would lose. Eventually.

As it was, the heat was messing with his brain. Jack had no idea how long he'd been in the volcano. He knew it couldn't have been too long, logically, but it felt like days. Water. He needed water. Or even better ice.

What he got instead was a chirp and tweet followed by Baby Tooth barreling into his chest. 

“Hey there,” he whispered and she immediately flew up to do a check up. Making what he was sure was comments on his state of being. “I'm fine, just a little wet and tired. But hey, I'm glad you found me. The others alright?”

She nodded, coming to stop at a hover level with his eyes.

“Good. I have an idea, but it requires you to leave Pitch's lair. Think you can do that?”

Baby Tooth trumpeted an affirmative.

“Perfect. If Pitch is making kids believe in the Boogieman through nightmares and fear, other spooky spirits should be gaining believers too. Right?” Baby Tooth hesitated before nodding. It was possible. 

“Right. But I know not all of them share Pitch's views. Contact some of those guys, okay Baby Tooth? Have them try to get the children to believe in the other Guardians, I doubt they'll believe in me. Even if it's just one of them, Tooth or North, that's something. Considering what happened earlier, getting them to believe in Bunny might be tricky.” 

Jack reached up and cupped his palms around Baby Tooth. She stopped flying to settle into his hands. 

“Thank you, for before. For not leaving me when I followed that voice. And believing in me at North's and getting the others to as close to normal as they can be. And I'm sorry for letting Pitch capture you that first time.”

Baby Tooth waved her hand in front of her face, a request to brush their not so pleasant history aside. 

“I mean it Baby Tooth. You're a good friend. And I believe you can do this.”

The fairy flushed before re-activating her wings. Baby Tooth gave a small salute and then zipped off in a flash of bright green.

Jack watched her go and tried not to think about how those words sounded like a last goodbye. Pitch's role as the Nightmare King was getting to him. Baby Tooth's visit was proof that he wasn't forgotten by the Guardians. But his plan was a long shot, and the fear of staying trapped here for eternity still sat heavy in his heart. 

He pressed his palm to a metal bar and pulled it back with a hiss. There was a pink stripe running down the center of his palm. As Jack watched, the skin slowly returned to it's normal albino white. A burn. Or at least, that's what would result from a similar action in an hour or two when he was pretty sure his magic would be low.

Jack hoped Baby Tooth was successful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those interested, I now have a tumblr for all things fannish. uniasus.tumblr.com


	9. Reinforcements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby Tooth goes out to find a spooky spirit and is a little weirded out by who she finds.

Baby Tooth only let herself fret after she had found her way out of the maze of tunnels Pitch Black controlled. 

Spooky spirits? 

Sometimes she forgot just how young Jack was. She was used to people looking young but being really much older than their appearance suggested. With Jack though, he was just beginning his life as a guardian. He probably didn't understand where spirits came from, that they were all chosen by the Man in the Moon to protect those who needed it, be it on a global scale like the Guardians or a local one like many Irish immortals. Spooky spirits just didn't exist, unless they were like Pitch and were supposed to be good and then went bad. The Man in the Moon wouldn't select someone to be a guardian just to scare people.

However, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow was making her re-evaluate that assessment. His appearance was scarier than Pitch's, what with the graphic stump for a head and uncanny ability to know where she was at all times. And it really threw her for a loop when the horse he rode spoke, but it had a smooth voice that reminded her of satin pillows. Baby Tooth supposed that without having a human head, the Man in the Moon had to give the Headless Horseman some way of communicating.

It took a lot of effort to get him to understand. Only Tooth understood fairy speak in it's audio format and Baby Tooth had never meet anyone other than her fellow fairy workers with whom she could communicate telepathically. She tried charades and writing, drawing pictures and mangled English her small voice box couldn't produce. But eventually the Headless Horseman, whose name was actually Igmar the stallion told her, understood. Or rather, Montigo, his horse understood. Baby Tooth wasn't entirely sure which was the one in control, the one with the mouth or the one with the reins, but it didn't matter after they agreed to help. 

And so Baby Tooth found herself holding on to Montigo's forelock as he cantered invisible along the Interstate. 

Jack had been right. The Headless Horseman, both Montigo and Ingmar she supposed, lived off of fear but had no plans of world domination like Pitch did. 

“We like scaring people,” Montigo said. “But it's a brief thing. We've seen how the children now are scared all the time, awake or dreaming. They don't come into the cemetery anymore. We don't get visitors now. “

Baby Tooth suggested they go to Burgess. A child there had seen the Guardians a few nights ago, and such proof of belief made it hard to shake off. He might have forgotten about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but he would have been one of the last to forget and thus one of the easier ones to remind. She had activated many memory capsules whose face she couldn't see. Perhaps Jamie was one of them. 

Being a local guardian, the Headless Horseman only had powers and beliefs in a limited range. But Burgess he said was quick enough and he was eager to see the rest of the town. Baby Tooth hoped this worked. Jack had not looked well in that cage, and she was sure North would be antsy to start swinging swords. 

Baby Tooth tugged gently on Montigo's forelock, directing him properly. 

This had to work, it just had to.

 

#####

Jamie woke to a sharp sting in his neck. When he pulled his hand away, there was a green feather between his fingers. The color was familiar in a way he didn't understand. Absent-mindly, he twirled it between his fingers. At the same time, he tongued the hole in his mouth and thought about his childhood belief in the Tooth Fairy. Was his mom hiding feathers in his room to pretend that she had come?

There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whinny from the street. Any other night, or day, Jamie would have no problem slipping to the window and peaking out into the street. But the world had turned scary this past week. Shadows ate people and the whispers in the night could make your ears bleed. 

He felt another sting, on his thigh this time through the blankets. And then another one on his foot. His hand. His side. Suddenly, staying in bed was no longer the safer option. Jamie stood up and leaped onto the floor, making sure to land far enough away so that the Boogieman hiding underneath could not grab him. 

Seeing he was standing near the window, Jamie took a look outside. 

The Headless Horseman was standing out there. 

As he watched, the rider brought his hand up and waved. 

Jamie quickly ducked down so he couldn't be seen, back against the wall beneath the window. The Headless Horseman! Outside his house! Before, he might have been a little excited about the idea, but now it terrified him. 

As if sensing his fears, the shadows under his bed grew eyes and started stretching towards him. 

“There is no such thing as the Boogieman.” Jamie chanted the phrase over and over. His mom had told him it, to convince him that nothing was in his closet or under his bed. But Jamie didn't believe it, for with each time he said it the eyes grew bigger and the shadow taller until there was a shifting horse of black sand with legs on either side of his bed and a mouth full of grinning fangs. 

He had to get out of the room. 

There was a brush of feathers on his cheek. The window something seemed to whisper. But out the window was the Headless Horseman, the dead solider looking for his head who might use Jamie's to replace it. 

The nightmare reared and Jamie didn't care how but he had to leave the room. The quickest way was through the window so he had it open and was dangling from the windowsill before he realized it might not have been the best idea ever. 

“Drop,” a voice said. 

Jamie looked down to see the Headless Horseman below him, hands out to catch him. Despite being a scary figure, the voice was soothing. Much friendly than the shrill scream that came from the nightmare slowly approaching. Jamie closed his eyes and dropped. 

The Horseman caught him. Jamie had just enough time to see the nightmare snarl before he found himself tucked into the chest of the Horseman and the stallion took off towards the woods. 

“Where to?” The Horseman asked and Jamie was surprised to hear the voice come from the horse and not the rider. 

“The pond.” He answered. The silence that followed gave Jamie the distinct impression that the question had been directed to someone else, someone Jamie couldn't hear or see, but the Horseman took his request in stride. 

It wasn't long before they were at Overland Pond. Jamie slid off the horse, grateful that his knees held him. Immediately, he stepped on to the ice. It may be April, but the pond always had a layer of ice on it till June. Jamie had a feeling it would support him better than the Headless Horseman.

“What, what do you want?”

“See that Baby Tooth? Back in the day, someone thanked you for saving them.”

At the name, a small fairy materialized near the Horseman's shoulder. 

“You're a fairy! You came to visit me!”

The horse rolled its eyes', but the fairy zoomed at him and flew circles around his head. 

“I can't believe I forgot you.” He held out his cupped palms and the fairy came to land in them. She was green with mismatched eyes and had a long pointy nose. “You're the one who woke me up. Thank you, that nightmare would have gotten me.”

Jamie looked up at the Headless Horseman. “Thank you for catching me.”

“You're welcome.” 

Jamie returned his attention to the fairy. “Why are you here? I didn't loose a tooth.”

She began chirping and gesturing, but Jame didn't understand. He looked at the Horseman for help, but the rider just shrugged his shoulders. “I can't understand her very well either, only her mom the Tooth Fairy understands the fairy language. But from what I can get, her mom's in trouble as well as the other Guardians.”

“Guardians?”

“You know, Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. Sandman.”

“They're all real?”

“Real as Baby Tooth in your hand.”

Jamie looked down at the fairy in his hands. She was warm and soft. Very obviously real. As was the talking horse and headless rider in front of him. 

“Right. So you need me to what? Help the Tooth Fairy?”

The fairy in his hands peeped an affirmative before diving into a long sting of squeaky toy sounds that Jamie didn't understand. Nor did the Headless Horseman apparently. 

The horse snorted. “As far as we can guess, it has to do with Pitch Black. Or as you know him, the Boogieman.”

“The monster under my bed that attacked me?”

“Worse, the King of Nightmares who controls those monsters. It's because of him that the world is a scary place right now and no one will come to visit us.”

Was it just Jamie, or did the Horseman sound lonely? 

“If the Boogieman has control over nightmares, and these...Guardians...haven't been able to defeat him, how can I?”

“Good question.” The horse began to pace, while the fairy in Jamie's hand went into a thinking pose. After awhile, she squeaked out a word.

“That one I understood,” the horse said. “Belief.”

“Belief?”

“Ingmar and I are a connected spirit, and like most we exist because of belief. Someone wrote a story about us and enough people thought it was true, resulting in us as you see.” 

The baby tooth fairy made some noise, but the Horseman kept talking over her.

“Believing in something makes it real. Mind over matter and that sort of thing. If you believe there is something under your bed, there will be something there.”

“Coach is always telling me to imagine making a goal before kicking the ball.”

“Same thing. Thing is the more people that believe in a spirit, the stronger it gets. Pitch and the Guardians were always opposite poles, so somehow he got you kids to stop believing in them, their powers disappeared, and he was able to scare you into believing in him. What we need your help with is in taking Pitch's power away and giving more to the Guardians.”

“And I do that, how?”

“We were hoping you'd know.”

Jamie was only eight. He didn't know a lot of thing. Just the alphabet and basic math. And that the Tooth Fairy was real. That, he had to admit, was awesome. 

“You're a scary spirit, how come you didn't try to hurt me like the monster?”

“We like scaring people Jamie, but not hurting them. Or scare them too much. If we was too scary, no one would come to visit us.”

“Who would want to visit you? You don't even have a head to throw at people.”

Jamie gasped and turned around, the fairy zooming to put herself between him and the new threat. 

It was a man, or at least looked like one. He was lacking eyebrows and had slicked back black hair, but what identified him as not human was the color of his skin. It was grey, like ash, and there was something about his eyes that reminded Jamie of the nightmare that was under his bed. Like the Headless Horseman, this spirit was mounted, his black robe merging with the sand horse beneath him to the point were Jamie would have wondered if they were the same creature if he hadn't seen the shadows that suggested that the man had legs. 

Jamie knew that this was Pitch Black, the Boogieman who lived under the bed and more importantly the King of Nightmares. Because that's had to be what had appeared in Jamie room earlier and now had them surrounded. Horses similar to the ones Pitch was riding; horses made of black sand that were constantly shifting to give a small iridescent glow that was easily overshadowed by the golden furnace that was their eyes. Their bodies reminded Jamie of the things that lurked in shadows and their eyes recalled the power of Hell.

At this point, Jamie wouldn't be surprised to find out Pitch was also known as the Devil. Or at least his cousin.

Slowly, Jamie looked around him. Nightmares circled him, the fairy, and the Horseman. Judging by the Horseman's horse's prancing, Jamie wasn't the only one nervous. The sand horses spiraled closer, tossing their manes, and Jamie found himself backing up until he was pressed against the Headless Horseman, feeling his calf along his side and a surprisingly warm horse belly behind him.

Eventually, the circle of nightmares stopped tightening. Pitch was no where to be seen, but Jamie could feel his eyes staring at the three of them. 

“Why isn't he attacking? He could easily take me and Baby Tooth out.” The Horse muttered around the bit.

Jamie eyed the nightmares. Now that they had been circling the trio harmlessly for a few minutes, he found them less threatening. Fears of being smothered in sand or trampled by hooves slowly faded from his mind as he realized there was no attack coming. 

And with that knowledge, all fear fled him.

The nightmares were nothing more then creepy sand horses, just like the Headless Horseman was nothing more than, well, a rider without a head. He was safe with both of them.

“Pitch doesn't want to hurt kids. Just scare them.”

He took a few shuffles forward, ignoring the protests from the horse and the fairy's tugging on the back of his pajamas. A nightmare was blowing hot air into his face, muzzle widening to revel sharp fangs. Before he could convince himself otherwise, Jamie shot out his hand and tapped it's face. 

Instantly it turned gold. 

There was a hiss of anger and suddenly Pitch Black was visible again. His nightmare reared, hooves dangerously close to Jamie's head but then there was a strong arm around his waist and he found himself seated before the Headless Horseman as they galloped back towards Burgess. 

“Did you see that? I destroyed a nightmare!” Jamie tried to turn around and look behind them, but the Horseman was too bulky.

“I saw,” the horse said. “How did you do that?”

“I just realized that I wasn't scared of them anymore. I didn't think Pitch or his horses wanted to hurt me.”

“Can you do it again?”

“Yeah, but if we want to beat Pitch we'll have to get some help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's proof of the Guardians' warped view. Baby Tooth shares Tooth's view, which is similar to most of the Guardians. They believe that all magic comes from the Moon, and so all spirits were created by him to be a guardian of some type. The Big Four were simply exceptional due to centers. (They seem to forget MiM made them to face off something older than them – Pitch. They like to say he was supposed to be the first Guardian but went sour, which is wrong.)
> 
> However, it's entirely possible for spirits to come to life without the help of the Moon. This is a foreign idea, hence Baby Tooth's initial confusion at the Headless Horseman. 
> 
> Should probably write a fic where the Guardians are face to face with their mistaken thoughts, but that won't happen here. Just Baby Tooth gets her eyes opened. 
> 
> Plot bunny strike! Oh man, who wants to see the Guardians go up against God?


	10. Face Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the fight is on!

It took some effort, convincing Jamie's friends not only to leave their beds but also that the Headless Horseman wasn't going to eat them. Many had dark circles under their eyes, the result of restless sleep, or in Monty's case no sleep at all. He kept nodding off while Jamie explained things to the point where Baby Tooth's annoyance level had her poking him in the shoulder with her nose.

It kept him from drifting off until after Jamie finished talking. 

“So we just have to not be afraid of them and touch them?” Cupcake turned to look at the rolling mass of sand she could see coming from downtown. Baby Tooth nodded, but was ignored in favor of the girl looking back to Jamie. She wasn't sure if it was a result in the elementary student not having rekindled her belief in the Tooth Fairy or her small size.

“Yeah.”

Baby Tooth left Jamie to continue to motivate his friends and went to settle on Igmar's shoulder. The Headless Horseman stood a bit back from the kids, aware of the slight uneasy feeling his presence gave them but still standing sentry. All spirits were guardians to some extent. She had thought it was because the Man in the Moon created all of them, but Igmar and Montigo shared a different origin. Now, Baby Tooth just figured children were special and brought out the protective nature of everyone. 

Of course, Jamie had shown them not an hour ago that he was capable of protecting himself against Pitch Black. It remained to be seen if his friends could do the same.

Montigo snorted. “He keeps getting closer, closing in. But he's awfully slow about it. What's he waiting for?”

Baby Tooth tugged on an ear, directing his attention to Jamie. Despite knowing he couldn't understand her most of the time, she answered. “He's scared of Jamie.” Eight year old, gap toothed, Jamie.

The Horseman seemed to get it, but she supposed it more to do with her frantic pointing at the child than a sudden understanding of her language. 

“He's the Nightmare King. He's not used to being afraid. He shouldn't be afraid. Jamie mentioned before he didn't think Pitch would harm him, but I don't think that's the case now.”

“If Jamie believes he can beat him, he can.” A lesson Jack taught her, but one she was still trying to find the limits to. After all, believing that she was blue didn't change the hue of her feathers. 

Igmar turned toward her, and she suspected that if he had his head he'd be lifting an eyebrow in her direction. Baby Tooth took that as a sign of once again his and Montigo's failure to understand her. But that was okay. Because it was pretty obvious by the way Jamie was wiggling his fingers that the child believed he could turn black sand to gold and his friends believed they could too.

In their distraction, Cupcake walked up to them and put a hand on Montigo's shoulder. “Will you fight too?” she asked, looking up at Igmar. 

“We will do our best, we were soldiers before we became a spirit.”

If Cupcake was surprised that the horse answered her question, she didn't show it. 

“Do you think we can win?” 

Montigo turned his neck to look at Baby Tooth on Igmar's shoulder. Baby Tooth could tell he didn't think they could. That Pitch was too powerful and now had no qualms about holding back. That within the hour he would be trapped below in darkness or consumed by Pitch's sand and Baby Tooth would no longer be able to fly. And the Guardians would slowly fade away while the kids around them were written off as dead due to something natural but really would be suffocation by sand. 

Well, that wouldn't do at all. 

Baby Tooth fluttered down to hover at Cupcake's eye level, and once she was sure the girl could see her gave a very elaborate nod and then brought her fists up to show she would fight too. 

Cupcake nodded. 

Montigo let out a shrill whinny and they all looked to him, and then towards downtown. Pitch was making his move.

The Headless Horseman charged forward, old fashioned pistol in his hand to meet Pitch in the middle of the road, the Nightmare King holding steady his scythe.

Baby Tooth buzzed helplessly, unsure if she should fly to help Igmar and Montigo or stay with the children where Jamie was telling them all to stand their ground and have their fingers ready. They all looked like they were going to capture chickens. Before Baby Tooth could make a decision the flood of nightmares behind Pitch split apart as he and Igmar clashed. 

The nightmares rushed towards the children. Monty cringed and curled up, the twins went pale, Pippa and Cupcake closed their eyes. Jamie however took a step forward. Baby Tooth rushed to perch on his outstretched wrist, landing just as a nightmare ran into Jamie's hand. 

Like before, it turned into golden sand and scattered. 

“Get 'um!” 

Cupcake went running past Baby Tooth and Jamie, Claus on her heels, while the rest of the children simply stood their ground and touched any nightmare that came close. Each one exploded in a burst of gold and was drawn to a spot behind them. As Baby Tooth watched, the golden sand spiraled, gaining height. 

Getting Jamie's attention, he turned around just in time to see Sandman regain his form.

“Sandman!” the brunette shouted. Sandy gave a bow and Jamie smiled. 

Baby Tooth zipped over to Sandy and quickly did her best to fill him in. Sandy, like anyone not Tooth, didn't know the fairy tongue but he understood more than most. 

“Pitch tricked Jack and then Pitch destroyed Easter and everyone was mad at Jack so he went to the South Pole where he gave up his staff for me and then Pitch broke it. The Guardians lost their power, but then The Man in the Moon told Jack how to get his powers back. It's all about belief! But different types, cuz there's more than one, and Jack was helping the others get better but than Pitch attacked again and now they're all underground and Jack's in a volcano. But Jack told me to find people to help take down Pitch and I found the Headless Horseman and we found the children, who can turn nightmare sand into dream sand! Did you know that? I didn't. Anyway, we have to defeat Pitch!”

Tooth had a theory that one of the reasons fairish was so hard to learn was its incredible speed. They all talked a mile a minute if they spoke more than a sentence. 

Baby Tooth hovered in front of Sandy, anxious to see if he understood. Who knew if he understood all of it, but an image of Pitch trapped in his whips appeared over Sandy's head and then he was off to help the Headless Horseman. She turned her attention back to the children.

They were all running around town, fingers wiggling, but instead of turning into golden streams like before, they took shapes. Cupcake turned nightmares into unicorns, Pippa made them into birds, Jamie's creatures looked suspiciously like North's yeti, the twins were churning out dinosaurs, and Monty dreamed up some rather impressive robots. 

It was a slow going battle, for every six nightmares turned into good dreams, the rest of the herd turned one of them back into a creature of black sand. However, it was obvious that eventually the children would win so Baby Tooth went off in search of the Headless Horseman and Sandy. 

She found them battling on a rooftop. Igmar and Montigo had split up, the rider taking potshots at Pitch while the stallion went after the nightmares he could reach. Pitch and Sandy were dueling each other, Sandy's golden whips flashing and Pitch's dark scythe cutting through the air. Baby Tooth arrived just in time to see Sandy pull the scythe out of Pitch's hands. The Sandman really was the best fighter in the Guardians, though he rarely used that skill. 

Weaponless, Pitch put his hands up and began retreating. “Come now Sandman, you can't blame me for trying. It's not like I actually hurt the children.”

An image of the Guardians flashed above Sandy's head and Pitch grinned. “Can't say the same for your friends.”

There was a bang as Igmar let loose a bullet. It hit Pitch in the shoulder and he fell to his knees right in time to receive a kick to the head from Montigo's hind legs. Just to be on the safe side, Sandy lobbed dream sand at the unconscious spirit. 

Baby Tooth decided it was a good time to swear Pitch out for all he had done. Sandy gently tugged on her tail feathers to stop her, pointing at the children down below turning the last remnants of the nightmare herd into fantastical shapes. During her lecture, the Headless Horseman had made his way over to them. Feeling their eyes, Montigo looked up at them and Igmar signaled that he'd see the children safely to their beds in a few minutes. 

That taken care of, Sandy directed her attention to Pitch, asking what to do with him.

“Toss him into the Sun.”

Sandy shook his head.

Pitch had no power now. All his corrupted sand was his no longer, and judging by how Jamie and his friends were frolicking around down in the square they no longer feared the power of the Boogieman and the shadows under the bed. 

Sandy suggested prison, if the bars above his head was any indication. Baby Tooth reluctantly agreed. Pitch had nearly won this time, it might take years for the Guardians to regain their numbers in believers, he certainly deserved to be out of the picture for good. But the Guardians didn't serve as judges, only guards, and anything more extreme than prison was both beyond the authority the Moon gave them and their power. 

A picture of a house behind bars materialized over Sandy's head. House arrest. Baby Tooth nodded. 

“Oh! How could I forget? We need to go let the others out of those cages! Come one, the only entrance I know is in the volcano where Jack is, and that's on the other side of the country.” Baby Tooth zoomed off, trusting Sandman to have understood most of what she said and bring Pitch along on his cloud. She took a brief moment to fly around the Horseman to thank them and then took off to Hawaii. 

Jack hadn't looked very well when she left. She hoped he was okay.

#####

Tooth felt a sudden swell of strength in her muscles. Believers! She had them again! Quickly, she looked over to her friends and saw North staring at his hands while Bunny stamped the floor of his cage. 

“Did you feel that?” Bunny asked.

A mummer of 'yes' rose from all the tooth fairies in their cages.

“Of course I did!” North yelled. “Baby Tooth and Jack must have done good job, Pitch is defeated!”

“Think we could get out these cages now?” Tooth asked, reaching a hand around to play with the lock.

“Give me a moment.” 

Tooth turned to watch Bunny. He braced his back against the bars, brought his feet to his chest, and then pistoned them out to hit the door. The metal bent. After the third double kick, the door popped off of the hinges and fell to the ground. The few nightmares hanging around were quickly destroyed via boomerangs. 

“Way to go Bunny!” 

He gave her a two finger salute and then opened all the cages containing the fairies. Immediately they rushed the golden capsules beneath them, the golden light filling Tooth with more joy than she had experienced at any point in the past three centuries. 

A handful of fairies hovered around the lock on her and North's cage, fretting over how to open it. One of them tried to use her nose as the others directed her, but it didn't work. 

“Move over shelias.” Bunny jumped to the top of Tooth's cage, a large rock in hand. Slowly, he crept down the cage, sticking his legs through the bars to use the metal floor for support and using his left paw to hold himself in place. Once he was settled, he slammed the rock against the bar of the lock. Tooth winced as the vibrations rang in her ear, but didn't say anything. Getting out of the metal contraption was way more important. 

It took some time, but eventually Tooth was free and Bunny had moved on to help North. Tooth set about checking up on her fairies. Aside from being a bit frightened and lots of roughed up feathers, they were all fine. She looked around for Baby Tooth, curious as to what had happened, but didn't see her or feel her psychically. Her number one fairy wasn't any where close by.

There was a 'ho!' and a jingle as North lept from the cage to the floor. He swirled a sword, eager for a fight. “Let's see if there is anything we can help with.”

“Actually,” Bunny landed next to the Russian. “Maybe we should go find Jack. Sure, I think we all know Pitch was defeated, but we don't know if Jack helped with that. Baby Tooth couldn't open any of the locks, remember? And we don't know if she even found him. I bet he's down here somewhere.”

Tooth flew down low to join them. “These tunnels are huge. How are we supposed to find him?” 

Several fairies volunteered to explore the tunnels looking for Jack, eager to see him again. “No, we'll stay together girls. I don't trust these tunnels, I'm sure they can twist and lead you in circles. I don't want to loose any of you.”

“It's a long shot, but if his cage is touching the ground I might be able to sense it,” Bunny offered. 

“And if you can't, we go down that tunnel.” North pointed towards the tunnel Baby Tooth had flown down. “While you concentrate Bunny, Tooth and I will see if we can somehow move teeth to bring them with us.”

There were a lot of teeth capsules. It might be better to find an opening to the surface and take many trips to transport them back to the Palace, she didn't know how they'd be able to move them all in the same trip. But she didn't really want to come back to Pitch's lair after she left it. 

“Wait, Bunny can't you just use a tunnel to send them to the Warren?”

He shook his head. “Even if I was at full power, I wouldn't be able to. Pitch's tunnels are below mine. I can't go up to connect to them, it doesn't work that way. We have to do all our traveling by foot.”

“A little exercise is good, yes? Makes room for more cookies.” North patted his belly. “Come Tooth, let's see what we can find.”

#####

Baby Tooth sat on Sandy's shoulder and directed him into the mouth of one of the dormant volcanoes on Hawaii. Hidden in the crater was a hole and she led him into that. As soon as they were under ground she could feel the heat. Chirping worriedly, she flew ahead of Sandy as she led the way to a large shaft that dropped to a pool of lava. The golden Guardian followed behind her on his cloud. 

Baby Tooth looked behind her to make sure he was following okay and caught him signing something about Jack and heat. She shook her head, not able to answer his question. Jack could be fine, or he could not be. 

She dived down the shaft until another tunnel appeared in the wall. There, just around the bend, lay Jack in his cage. 

The hours he had spend in it had not treated him kindly. He had put his hands in his pouch to prevent them from getting burned and had pulled up his hood for the same reason. It was good he had, because when he fell unconscious he had slipped sideways to lay against the metal bars which were glowing slightly with heat. When Baby Tooth had left him, Jack's clothes were wet from melted frost. Now, they were paper dry aside from then blood stains near his shoulder and side. She could also see a burn the width of a bar on his lower back where his sweatshirt had ridden up. His feet were blistering too, there wasn't any place Jack could have put them and not have them touch metal. 

Vindictive at the sight of him, Baby Tooth made to deliver several sharp pokes to the sensitive parts of Pitch's body but Sandy stopped her. He didn't want to risk him waking up, and for good measure threw more sand at his head. Freshly dreaming, Baby Tooth figured it was okay to at least slap Pitch in the cheek with all the strength her small body could muster. 

Sandy forced the lock apart with his sand and gently sent tendrils from his sand cloud to lift Jack out of the cage and set him gingerly on the opposite side of him from Pitch. Softly, he blew sand into Jack's face. Baby Tooth found herself watching the ice skaters above his head until a sudden awareness in her mind had her turning around and squealing in happiness. 

Tooth came wheeling around the corner to scoop Baby Tooth up and rub her against her check. Behind her came North, Bunny, and the rest of the fairies rolling mesh lined cages full of teeth capsules. 

“Told you we'd find them.” Bunny said. He froze as he caught sight of Sandy. “You're okay!”

Bunny and North quickly crowded Sandy and noticed the two still figures sharing his cloud. 

“What happened?” North asked.

Baby Tooth went off in fairish to Tooth, who translated for everyone else. 

“You were so brave!” Tooth praised and Baby Tooth stuck out her chest with pride. 

“I say we lock Pitch in this cage, roll him down the tunnel, and then collapse it.” Without waiting for the others to agree or disagree, Bunny threw Pitch into the metal basket Jack had been in moments before. 

Tooth turned to Sandy. “I'll take Jack to the surface if you don't mind starting on bring the teeth up.” 

The Sandman nodded. Gently, Tooth scooped up Jack and Baby Tooth settled in the his hair. 

“He did well, don't you think?” Tooth asked Sandy, who answered with a nod. 

With that, Tooth shot into the air, Jack in her arms. Once again under the sky, she found a bit of shade to lay Jack in while she helped the others get the teeth capsules out of Pitch's lair. She didn't have to ask Baby Tooth to stay with him, the small fairy would have done it anyway. 

Baby Tooth watched her boss fly back into the volcano before curling up near Jack's face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter to go! Though it's more of an epilogue.


	11. Seen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a wrap up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might have a thing for changing Jack's staff. I have nothing against the canon one, but I've done it twice now :/

“Jack Frost get down from there!”

“I don't feel like it,” Jack called down to Jamie from the roof. 

It was six months since Pitch had been locked underground and Jack was having a fun time using the wind to make Jamie's chore of raking up leaves difficult. 

Jack had been surprised when during his first trip to Burgess after healing up and officially becoming a Guardian that several of the children not only knew his name but could see him. Burgess had always been home in his mind, but since the children started to believe in him his heart labeled it as such too. 

“Well, if you don't cut it out I promise the next snow day I'll stay inside the whole time and watch movies.”

“You wouldn't.”

“Would too.” Jamie stared at him from the front yard, Jack stared back, and before long it was a staring contest that Jack ended up winning. Physically he didn't have to blink, while Jamie did. Jack always won, but if Jamie knew why he might declare Jack's talent to overlook all things biological due to being dead unfair and the nine year old would declare him a cheater. 

Grinning in triumph, Jack floated down to help Jamie with his chore. It was rather comical watching, as the rake and Jamie were identical in size, but eventually he gave in and silently commanded the wind to blow the leaves into a pile. A small whirlwind of red and gold developed, sweeping through the yard and gathering up leaves to drop in a foot high pile when it died. As Jack watched, another whirlwind formed across the street as the wind took up the chore at Pippa's house. 

“On three?” Jamie asked.

Jack nodded and let his friend count down. 

“One, two, three!”

They jumped into the leaves, almost on top of each other and laughing. 

A snort drew Jack's attention and he looked up to see Igmar and Montigo at the edge of the yard. Montigo was nosing his new staff where it leaned against the fence. Jack stood up and brushed the leaves out of his hair. 

“I haven't seen you since last October. How you guys doing?”

“Igmar! Montigo!” Jamie ran to give both parts of the Headless Horsman a hug. Igmar dismounted and set about helping Jamie recollect the scattered knees, leaving Montigo and Jack alone on the sidewalk.

“I hear you're an official Guardian now.” Montigo said. 

“Yeah, never expected that. And don't quite know why the Moon won't make you one either. From what I've heard, you were awesome last April.” Jack felt a little bad about not coming to see his friends sooner than now. Baby Tooth had told him, through Tooth, of what happened and he was proud of his friends. But Jack had spent most of the summer sleeping, healing and escaping the sun.

“Well, we did what we could. And as we both know, I have a much smaller range than you.”

“Still.”

They stood in silence for a minute, watching Igmar and Jamie doing their best to shape the leaves into a pyramid.

“I'm glad to see you on your feet. We were worried.”

“Thanks. But as it turns out, I'm stronger than I thought I was.” To prove his point Jack lifted his new staff and brought it down on his knee. Montigo made a sound of protest, but it died as Jack healed the wood. He held it out for the horse to nose over. Same shape, but made of bleached oak, there wasn't even a hitch in the grains to show where the break had been.

“Apparently, I never needed it before, just think I did. Just like how Igmar doesn't really need a head but you guys just pretend he does.”

“It keeps the kids happy.”

“Yeah, I guess it does.” Jack laughed. “Oh hey, look at this!” 

Jack pulled up his sweatshirt to reveal two scars. One on his shoulder where Pitch's scythe had hit him and another on below his ribs where a nightmare decided to snack on him, both from the fight at the North Pole. “Got myself battle scars. Didn't think spirits could get those, but apparently we can. It was worth it though, to have all these kids believe in me. I gain more believers all the time.”

“Is being believed in by children all over the world as wonderful as they say?”

“Better,” Jack answered with a grin. He gestured to where Igmar and Jamie prepared to jump into the leaf pile again. “It's like that, times a thousand. Warmth in you chest and a huge burst of confidence.”

“So now that you're a big shot Guardian, should I not expect to see you in two weeks for Halloween?”

“Are you kidding? We have so much fun on Halloween! Being a Guardian isn't all that different than before, just actually interacting with kids and a huge power burst. It's not like we have monthly meetings or anything. I can still do what ever I want.”

“Even make it snow on Easter?”

“Of course! But I probably won't, not for awhile anyway. Bunny's got a tough couple of decades ahead of him. All the others do I think.”

“Horsey!”

Jack and Montigo turned to watch Sophie come down the porch stairs, tripping on her scarf as she hopped down them. Months ago she traded her fairy wings for an ever present headband containing pink bunny ears. 

“Ride! Ride!” She begged, tugging on Igmar's empty stirrups. 

“Can we?” Jamie asked, walking over with Igmar.

Jack shared a look with his fellow spirits and then shrugged. For Sophie to be asking, he figured this wasn't the Headless Horseman's first visit since fighting Pitch. 

As an answer, Igmar swung Sophie onto Montigo's back and then placed Jamie behind her. He got into the saddle behind them, the children between his arms. “Where to?” Montigo asked. 

Jack answered for him. “Why don't we go visit the sky?” With a sweep of his hand, he created an ice ramp. “Let's go fly between the tree tops.” 

“All right!” Jamie whooped as Montigo took off at a canter, Jack flying beside them and continuing the road of ice.

Jack Frost couldn't ask for more – the friendship of other spirits and children to have fun with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for following along guys! For those of you waiting for the sequel to Fearlings, sorry, got distracted by FMA and Pitch reminding me that guess what? He didn't just destroyed the empire, he destroyed the universe. Yay for rethinking plots!

**Author's Note:**

> For updates and a look into my mind, check out uniasus.tumblr.com.


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